In Dec. 2012, Milwaukee began a pilot program in which cheese brine is dumped on the city's roads to help melt ice and snow. The brine is a waste product created when making cheese, for which industry the state is well known.

According to Emil Norby of Wisconsin's Polk County, up to 30% of the dry salt conventionally used on icy thoroughfares is knocked off the roads by cars, or simply bouncing away when first dropped, before it can do any good. Cheese brine helps the salt stick to the road.

A maximum of eight gallons of cheese brine may be mixed with each ton of salt. Wisconsin produced 2.7 billion pounds of cheese in 2012.

In Polk County, the government saved an estimated $40,000 in salt-related expenses in 2009, the first year it used cheese brine. Milwaukee's 2013 pilot program cost about $6,500; in 2012 the city spent $6.5 million combating snow and ice on the roads.