Green chemicals
“This is a Green chemical-certified product”, is a common term found on many chemical containers these days. But what are green chemicals? These are cleaning chemicals based on natural products available in nature, like soybeans, milk, citrus & fruits, and hydrogen peroxide. The recognised standards for green chemicals are biodegradable, safe for the environment, environmentally benign and non-toxic but there are no universally accepted standards for green chemicals. The Green Seal certifies only the product as such “but a chemical becomes green with eco-friendly practices. Right from when the product is being born, developed, manufactured to being used and disposed off, it has to be eco-friendly. It is not just the product being safe per se but it should be safe for use, safe on hands and safe to nature and biodegradable. Hence, the manufacturer not only has to choose the right ingredients but also has to ensure that there are no banned substances used and the list of substances used declared. The products are to be manufactured in a responsible manner at every stage of production, ensuring sustainable, biodegradable and eco friendly practices,” says Abhay.
Misconceptions and wrong practices
Cleaners often go by the colour of the chemical container or the name of the brand to determine its application. Dilutions, measurements and combinations are directly based on the training they receive. Many a time to get better results, cleaners tend to mix chemicals without knowing the contents of each chemical. Hazardous chemical reaction could take place in a mop bucket when a product with ammonia is mixed with another containing hypochlorite (such as bleach) or bleach is mixed with acid-based chemical. In either case, potentially dangerous chlorine gases are released.
Not just the institutional market, even at the consumer level wrong mixing of chemicals could damage the surface. Resultantly, consumers disqualify the product without realising it is the mixing and may be not the product itself which has caused the damage. Hence, process and procedures also play major role in making the product effective.
Mike James, Managing Director of UK-based Bio-Productions Ltd, which makes eco-friendly chemicals from oranges, says “the rule one for developing any cleaning product is that it should perform and two, it should be simple. Therefore, we believe that thought should be given to the selection of ‘chemicals’ when undertaking a task. It is also worth noting that, invariably, an aggressive chemical (which is quite likely to be harmful to the environment) could also damage the surface (or finish) of the item being cleaned. This ultimately enables soiling to enter the substrate, making it more difficult to clean the next time. Obviously, there are occasions when an aggressive chemical will be the only way of resolving a problem, such as killing germs. Here, as with using any toxic substance, thought must be given to the amount used, the dilution and the ultimate disposal.”
While choosing chemical products, the following factors should be considered:
Water hardness: The amount of calcium and magnesium found in water directly determines the performance levels of the chemicals. Disinfectants and sanitisers that are quaternary-based have a negative affect in hard water.
Stain/soil: Solvent cleaners that usually have petroleum base are suitable to treat grease and oil whereas acid-based cleaners could be used on scale and lime deposits on bathroom fixtures.
Costing-Usage: The cost per usable litre of cleaning solution is the basis of calculating the cost of usage. Different chemicals are diluted to different concentrations for different applications, which should also be taken into consideration.
Labour & equipment cost: This will help arrive at the actual cost incurred by the housekeeping company for a cleaning project.
Availability of product, distributors, after sales service are points to be considered.
TACT
“Finally, to make any cleaning successful, along with chemicals, there are three more parameters: Temperature, Time and Agitation or Action. These parameters are variable and adaptable according to the cleaning needs. Any cleaning process needs to have a combination of the parameters, such as Time (contact time), Agitation (mechanical action), Chemical concentration (detergents) and Temperature, which is technically known as TACT,” says Abhay.
Temperature: It is a scientific fact that cleaning solutions (detergent and water for example) work 100% using a temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Any colder combination would require more of the other three ingredients agitation, chemical and time in variation. But by increasing the temperature more than double the power of the same cleaning process could be achieved thereby cutting by the requirement of remaining three ingredients.
Agitation: Scrubbing, scouring and scraping are actions in combination with temperature and chemical could perform best, thereby reducing time taken to clean.
Chemical: There are several chemicals available for different cleaning tasks. They can be classified into natural, organic or synthetic, acidic, alkaline, volatile (bleaching) or non-volatile, solvent or non-solvent and cationic, anionic or non-ionic based on the electric component. It works in combination will all the three ingredients.
Time: The goal in any cleaning task is to minimize performance time. With the proper use of temperature, agitation techniques and chemicals for a given cleaning task, cleaning could be performed safely and effectively in a minimum amount of time.
To quote, US Environmental expert Micheal Berry, “Manufacturers should sell cleaning science and environmental protection knowledge along with product. They should support testing & training and emphasize the effective and efficient use of cleaning products. They should use science-based knowledge to make products and cleaning systems for efficient and effective cleaning and for protection of environment.
Service providers should use science to develop cleaning professionalism. They should use knowledge to educate, inform and get closer to customers through effective-environment friendly cleaning. All in the cleaning and related industries should use cleaning science to gain a competitive advantage in this ‘green age’ by way of sound science and factual representation.
All cleaning products should be shown to be useful in the process of effective cleaning as part of Green certification. This is currently not happening.”
