tackling trouble areas Making Green Greener: Chemical-free Cleaning As green as it gets. By: Wm R. Griffin W Water, something we canʼt live without that has long been called the universal solvent, is finding its rightful place as our primary and safest cleaning solution. Water is becoming a more valuable and scare resource; this has been speculated to accelerate in the future. The disposal of soiled cleaning solution will grow as an issue until technology brings us waterless cleaning processes and we come to understand that “preven-tion” is the ultimate green cleaning process. Soaps and synthetic detergents have a long and interesting history, starting with soap-like materials found in the ancient ruins of Babylon dating back to 2800 BCE. Records from 1500 BCE describe the combining of animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to form soap-like materi-als for treating skin diseases and washing. Modern history recognizes Procter and Gamble Company as the first to market a synthetic detergent in the early 1930s. Since that time, detergents have been refined, compounded, buffered and further enhanced to produce the products we use today. enhanced in many ways to make it more effective than plain tap water, including: Activating or electrolyzing, oxygenating, energizing, cavitating, vaporizing, heating, polishing, softening, filtering, deionizing — the list goes on. Electrolyzed Water Even though the process isnʼt effective when cleaning petroleum-based oil and grease-contaminated soils, what it is able to do is a major advancement towards green floor care. The elimination of or even a reduction in the use of chemicals from the cleaning process has many benefits, including increased productivity, lower costs, less residue remaining on floors, greater slip resistance and a more environmentally friendly waste stream. Since electrolyzed waterʼs introduction, several companies have entered into licensing agreements with its innovator and continue to refine the processes and the equipment used to employ the technology. According to Sven Toelen with the Tennant Company, “Our next step is to see what else we can do with the ec-H2O process. We know that from a chemical cost savings standpoint alone, our cus-tomers are able to get a return on invest-ment (ROI) on their equipment purchase in as little as two or three years.” One company has taken the ec-H2O process a step further to make it portable in a spray bottle and has improved the technology to the point that it can kill germs and viruses as well as clean hard surfaces. An onboard chip senses the minerals in the water and adjusts the electrical current for optimum cleaning and sanitizing, enabling the water coming out of the sprayer head to kill all microorganisms at a log 5 level — 99.999 percent efficacy — in six seconds or less. Chris Deets, marketing director for Activeion Cleaning Solutions LLC, explains it this way: “We have effectively amped up the ionizing process to enable the ionized water to kill microorganisms by breaking down the cell wall in less than six seconds. Based upon a tested and proven process that has been used in the medical and food processing industries for many years, this is the first time itʼs been applied to the cleaning industry. Itʼs not a miracle cleaner, the process doesnʼt work on heavy grease, grossly soiled surfaces and isnʼt approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on food preparation surfaces in restaurants.” Financially speaking, an activated water sprayer that replaces hundreds of bottles of pricey chemicals may pay for itself over time. Dry Steam Cleaning A growing number of companies are offer-ing low-moisture steam vapor systems for cleaning. One reputable company, whose units have a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishment number as disinfecting devices, uses a process that produces steam vapor with hospital-quality disinfectant properties. The system uses a combination of heat and low-pressure, low-moisture vapor for rapid results, and is especially effective on Water Comes Full Circle Before we had soap and synthetic deter-gents, water was the only substance any-one had for cleaning. After decades of using petroleum-based synthetic detergents, we have begun the move towards bio-or natural-based clean-ing chemicals. The final step in this evolution is to go back to where we started: Using only water for cleaning. Today, water is used as a hybrid 38 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • March 2010
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