Important step – more sustainable winter road maintenance

Several municipalities and companies are now taking an important step toward more sustainable winter road maintenance. By collecting and reusing grit sand after the season, the need for new material is reduced — along with both costs and environmental impact. The collected sand is screened before being returned to winter road safety use the following year or used as fill material in construction projects.

This initiative is seen as a clear example of a circular economy in practice: resources are kept in circulation, waste is reduced, and the value of materials is utilized multiple times.

Jan Wallin, COO at NGR, explains that the sand will circulate until it is essentially “worn out.”

– We definitely need procurement processes that take this into account going forward. Collecting sand every year only to dump it afterward is unsustainable. We should also be able to simplify processes around similar materials — everyone benefits when reuse and circular practices are made easier.