by Brianna Crandall — April 21, 2017 — The nonprofit ecolabel Green Seal recently announced that the first products certified to its Standard for Environmental Innovation (GS‐20) are a complete line of floor pads for use with floorcare machines from Americo Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer of commercial cleaning products used around the world. Green Seal applauded the pads for combining sustainability, innovation, and performance in product design.
The certified products include all of Americo’s Full Cycle floor pads, both abrasive and non‐abrasive, which have been proven to offer enhanced biodegradation in landfill conditions and to contain 100% recycled content and natural fiber.
Americo’s Full Cycle floor pads, both abrasive and non‐abrasive, have been proven to offer enhanced biodegradation in landfill conditions.
Americo’s Full Cycle floor pads are made with 100% recycled PET fiber or a combination of that and natural fibers. The company also uses water‐based latex in the manufacturing process, avoiding phenolic-based resins. The pads have been tested by an independent lab to demonstrate that they biodegrade at a faster rate than conventional floor pads in a simulated landfill environment.
The enhanced biodegradation helps to reduce landfill volume over time. In addition, this significantly shorter time frame allows landfills that have methane‐to‐energy collection systems in place to capture landfill gas and convert it to energy. Americo provides end‐of‐life instructions to the market for disposing of the pads in landfills that capture landfill gas and convert it to energy on its Waste-to-Energy page.
In order to become certified under GS‐20, Americo submitted an application to Green Seal describing its product line and the environmental benefits it claimed for validation. Green Seal examined these benefits in a life‐cycle context and also determined whether the product line could be considered innovative, as defined by the standard.
Additional information about the GS‐20 standard, the certification process, and the full list of criteria developed for this specific product group can be found on the Green Seal Web site.
