Attributes of Green Cleaning Products

Using products that minimize negative human health and environmental impacts is an important and challenging step in greening janitorial services. Janitorial managers and contractors are faced with the daunting task of choosing products that produce effective, hygienic results while minimizing risk to employees, building occupants, and the environment.

Janitorial staffs are likely to use two main categories of products: general supplies and cleaning chemicals. These product categories have specific attributes that can be examined and adjusted to increase environmental performance. The following sections outline some of these attributes, including some of the standards that can be used to transition to a green cleaning program. Generally, the standards can be used in two ways: purchasers can buy products that are already certified by a particular standard (e.g., Green Seal), or managers can review the standards and use them as guidelines when selecting and purchasing cleaning products.

General Supplies

The manufacture of any product involves the use of raw materials and energy. These materials, such as petroleum for plastic and trees for paper, are often mined, extracted, or harvested from the Earth. Sometimes manufacturers can recycle used materials instead of extracting "virgin" materials, which can save energy and natural resources and prevent pollution. To encourage this process, building and janitorial managers should try to use products with recovered material (recycled) content whenever possible. In addition to conserving resources, using recycled-content products helps keep trash out of landfills and incinerators, each of which can pose environmental risks. Furthermore, federal agencies are required to purchase recycled-content products designated in the Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (see Chapter 1 for more information about CPG).

In an effort to prevent waste in the first place (also called source reduction), janitorial or procurement managers can take steps to reduce the amount of product or packaging that must be throw away. Non-chemical janitorial supplies, such as paper towels, facial tissue, bathroom tissue, industrial wipes and rags, and plastic trash bags, all contribute to the solid waste stream. For example, roll paper towels perforated into small sheets are less wasteful than individual folded towels, as each individual uses less paper. In addition, purchasing janitorial supplies that have been manufactured and shipped with less packaging will help reduce the amount of waste they create when thrown away.

In addition to recycled content, paper janitorial products can be made without traditional chlorine bleaching processes, which can be harmful to human health and the environment. Bleaching paper with chlorine-based compounds releases extremely toxic chemicals into the environment. The most dangerous is dioxin. Once released into the environment, dioxins are persistent because natural bacteria cannot effectively break it down. It also bioaccumulates and bio-magnifies. Paper products can remain unbleached or they can be bleached with hydrogen peroxide or other less-toxic alternatives, especially in the case of paper towels, bathroom and facial tissue. Bleaching options differ depending upon the raw material used.

Sample of Environmental Attributes for Janitorial Supplies

• Recovered materials: These are materials that have been recovered or diverted from solid waste. This term does not include materials and byproducts generated from, and commonly reused within, an original manufacturing process.
• Postconsumer materials: These materials have served their intended use and have been diverted or recovered from waste destined for disposal, having completed life as a consumer item. Postconsumer materials are part of the broader category of recovered materials.
• Recycled content: This term refers to the amount or percent of recovered material that a finished product contains.
• Recycled or recyclable packaging/returnable or refillable packaging: Agencies procuring green cleaning can specify these waste prevention measures.
• Process chlorine free: This term refers to recycled-content papers that were manufactured without the use of chlorine compounds to rebleach the paper during the recycling process.
• Totally chlorine free: This term applies to virgin papers and tissues (containing zero post-consumer recycled content) that were manufactured without the use of chlorine compounds to bleach the pulp during all parts of the papermaking process. Recycled-content paper cannot be totally chlorine free unless all discarded paper used to manufacture the recycled paper was chlorine free, which is a highly unlikely occurrence.

Although federal agencies are required to purchase most paper products with recycled content, which would negate totally chlorine free bleaching processes as an option, they are allowed to purchase totally chlorine free paper if they determine that it is an important performance requirement. Nonfederal agencies, however, can choose which environmental impact is more relevant to their locality and environmental mission: eliminating toxic chlorine compounds from the environment or recycling paper recovered from solid waste. (See Appendix A for a list of environmentally preferable janitorial supplies)

Green Cleaning Products

Because so many different cleaning chemicals exist and because different janitorial crews can use different practices and quantities, it is important to note that hazards are best evaluated on a product-by-product or chemical-by-chemical basis. This type of evaluation provides users with complete information about the product, including the risks of individual ingredients and their combined effect in one product.

Several standard-setting organizations develop guidance to assist in evaluating cleaning products. The Greenseal standard, which was developed recently with substantial industry and environmental stakeholder involvement is comprehensive in scope. DOI recommends following Green Seal standards, which are the best known and most widely accepted guidelines available. Janitorial managers and purchasers should carefully review Green Seal standards and adapt or expand them to meet local needs and concerns. Green cleaning is still a relatively new concept, and managers who follow Green Seal standards will be on the cutting edge of green cleaning and have a head start on standards that will more than likely be mandatory in the future. See the attached Green Seal standard for more detailed information.

Attributes differ for every green cleaning program depending upon a variety of factors, such as local and regional environmental issues; health, safety, or environmental priorities; state and local regulations; building characteristics; and availability of alternative products. The following environmental attributes are some examples of those that appear in Green Seal standards and other green janitorial specifications.

A Sampling of Environmental Attributes for Green Cleaning Products

• Must not contain any carcinogens, mutagens, or teratogens designated by federal law.
• Must not contain any ozone-depleting compounds, greenhouse gases, or substances that contribute to photochemical smog and poor indoor air quality.
• Must have a pH between 4 and 9.
• Must have a flash point higher than 200º F.
• Must not be corrosive or irritating to the skin or eyes.
• VOC levels must meet or be less volatile than the California Code of Regulations maximum allowable VOC levels for appropriate cleaning product categories.
• Must not be delivered in aerosol cans.
• Must not contain petrochemical-derived fragrances.
• Must not contain dyes.
• Must not contain ingredients included on the Chesapeake Bay Program's Toxics of Concern list.
• Must be dispensed through automatic systems in order to reduce employee contact with the concentrate and to ensure proper dilution ratios.
• Must not contain any chemicals under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
• Must not constitute hazardous wastes, as defined in 40 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 261, when offered for disposal.
• Must not be toxic to humans or aquatic life.
• Must not contain endocrine modifiers, alkyl phenyl ethoxylates, dibutyl phthalate, or heavy metals (e.g., arsenic, lead, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, mercury, nickel, selenium).
• Must be biodegradable.
• Must not contain petroleum distillates.
• Must not be combustible.
• Must not contain more than 0.5 percent by weight of phosphorous.
• Must be biobased (i.e., utilize biological products or renewable, domestic agricultural [plant, animal, or marine] or forestry materials).
• Must not contain chlorinated solvents.
• Must not contain persistent or bioaccumulative substances.

Source: Department of the Interior (www.doi.gov)