Executive Housekeeping Today - May 2008 - (Page 9)

How Green is Your Laundry? Over the past several years, nearly all facets of our industry have been touched by the Green Movement. Despite the fact it has experienced exponential growth and success within many areas and markets, there are still a few areas that have been overlooked. For instance, take a look at the products in your laundry room—the labels on many of these products have hazardous and potentially toxic chemicals listed as active ingredients. In our current environment, does it make sense to clean everything under our roof with Green chemicals and techniques except in the laundry room? No! The problem that we face is that as of today, there are no defined Green laundry standards. To identify laundry chemicals that fit into the idea of a Green or environmentally-preferable program, you simply need to apply the criteria that is currently established for other Green cleaning applications. By applying universally Green criteria—such as low to no VOCs, no phosphates, no toxic or persistent components and byproducts, readily biodegradable, no ozone depleting chemicals, etc.—you will begin to see which laundry products fit in as Green and which ones do not. The following sections outline specific laundry products, their uses in laundry, and chemicals to avoid in these products, as well as a few suggested environmentally- o by Nathan S. Gaubert, M.S. Nathan S. Gaubert, chemist and laundry specialist for Spartan Chemical Company Inc., presents at a recent laundry seminar hosted by Spartan. will cause fish and other aquatic life to suffocate.1 Two effective chelants, or water softeners, that are commonly found in laundry builder formulations, Diaminoethanetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and Nitrilotriacetate (NTA), should also be avoided. In nature, EDTA biodegrades slowly, so there is trepidation about EDTA accumulating in nature. There are also concerns about EDTA and the role it could play in the remobilization of heavy metals back into the water supply.2 On the other hand, NTA is readily biodegradable, but poses other dangers. NTA is listed on several chemical inventories as being a known cause of cancer and could possibly pose severe human health risks.3 To select builders that have a positive environmental profile, look for products that contain sodium citrate, ethylenediaminedisuccinic acid (EDDS), or tetrasodium iminodisuccinate. These chemicals are all readily biodegradable and pose fewer health and environmental concerns compared to phosphates, EDTA, or NTA. friendly alternatives to help guide you in selecting the proper chemicals for your laundry room. A builder is used in laundry to change the quality and properties of water, specifically water hardness and pH. By controlling the water quality, a builder allows surfactants to work more efficiently, thus ensuring optimal detergent performance. Builders can be stand-alone products, often referred to as a break or builder-type product, or they can be added to laundry detergent formulations, which are referred to as built detergents. Builders that are environmentally-preferable will biodegrade to less toxic and persistent chemicals that pose no human health risks. Phosphates, chemicals containing PO4-, are used as builders in many different cleaning formulations, especially laundry, to both soften water and buffer pH. Seasoned Green cleaning professionals should already know that products containing phosphates are not Green or environmentallyfriendly due to their role in the eutrofication of waterways—which occurs when too much phosphate is present in the water, causing algae and weeds to grow rapidly and die quickly. This sudden abundance of decomposing organic matter depletes the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, which, in turn, Builders Surfactants and Detergents Surface active agents, or surfactants, are the active cleaning agents in most laundry detergent formulations. Surfactants work by changing the chemical and physical relationship between water and the fabric that is to be cleaned. (continued on page 13) May 2008/Executive Housekeeping Today 9

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - May 2008

Executive Housekeeping Today - May 2008 Contents Executive Corner From Ivory Halls to Four-Star Resorts The Ten-Dollar Test Toward Customer Satisfaction Frugal Housekeeper How Green is Your Laundry Not All Microfiber is Created Equal Feature Article - I.E.H.A. Investigates: Issues in Hotel Housekeeping 2008 Candidate Information IHW Product Information The Green Scene 2008 Convention Information Product Highlights Inside the Industry New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members CEH/REH Members Advertisers' Index Calendar of Events Inside I.E.H.A. What I.E.H.A. Has Done For Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - May 2008

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