which salt is more cost effective?

Question

common salt is spread on roads to prevent icing in the wintertime. The cost of salt is $1/kg. A rich new source of CaCl2 was discovered and mined at $1.4/kg. Which salt is more cost-effective?

Answer 1

After reading the Wikipedia article on this compound, it seems that it would be much more expensive than common salt to keep it in dry storage until it was needed. You would have to factor that into the total costs over one winter.

Answer 2

Well the first instinct is to say the cheaper one. But you have left out details.

Are you buying the same amount of each?

Does the new salt work better so you have to use less? If it is then it is more cost effective. In the end you have used less and spent less. If it doesn't work as well or is just as comparable, then the NaCl is more cost effective.

Cost effectiveness is about how much money is saved in the log run not what initial prices are. Also, cost effectiveness applies to things that are expensive but the results are worth the expense.