Lab update of activities for March 2010

Green Cleaning Testing
Product Performance Testing
The lab has been working with four manufacturers of janitorial/household cleaners. Testing has been conducted to help these products get Green Seal and/or EPA DfE certification/recognition. Areas of testing included this month: all purpose, bathroom, glass, manual/automatic dishwashing, carpet stain cleaning, floor finish durability.
• There is one project for dishwashing (manual and automatic) that is starting the first week of April.
• Testing for All Purpose GS 37 and degreasing GS 34 – to start in April
• Testing microfiber/squeegee cleaning process using ATP measurements – to continue in April
• Formulation project - Alternative solvent testing for all purpose cleaning (Dipropylene glycol methyl ether) and graffiti removal (Dibasic esters)
• Activated water testing – follow up work to earlier project

Site Visits
The toluene replacement is being piloted on site for one of the four products identified by the lab. They are working on adhesion control. Have dropped off 3 samples. They are testing for adhesion. Also researching product they asked me about and have reached out to vendors for more options.

TCE replacement – visit to look at passivation line, talk about cold solvent regs & any other low hanging fruit & to start case study on their switch to nPB (25% reduction in chemical useage and haz waste). Going end of week

Plating company – arranged for visit in late April - need to get out of nPB to meet new cold cleaning regulations

Acetone reduction in cleaning process. Use over 12,000 lbs. Visit middle of April

Database
Updated testing data for March.
Have requested database reviews from three people. Reviews may be used for Journal of Cleaner Production. These also will be incorporated onto database and blog as well. Stay tuned.

Outreach
Chapter in Handbook for Critical Cleaning 2nd edition coming out in April/May. Chapter focuses on the lab’s technical assistance program.

Article in Executive Housekeeping Today "Measuring Green Cleaning" for Cleaning and Maintenance Magazine came out in April.

Website – Beginning DIY page review. Will set up meeting to discuss it after CE conference. Idea is to look at website as a whole for technical data as well as consumer usefulness. Want to add more recipes, do more testing etc.
• New Lab banner ad on Healthy Home Institute, Housekeeping Channel sites

Carpet Stain DIY Cleaning – Heidi hit the road and went to Tallahassee. Spent four days working on carpet samples, rehearsing and filming segments on carpet cleaning with DIY recipes as well as CRI approved products. Partnered with HHI/HC.

CE Conference – Heidi in charge of session on cold solvent regulations with Azin Kavian from MA DEP. Will talk about regulation, what Lab & OTA can offer and show some alternatives

Disinfection Testing Partnership within UML SHE
The partnership will start out by looking at how to compare the ATP measurement with traditional analytical methods for biological evaluations. Lab will provide some materials, student time and staff time (Heidi) to help get testing started.
• Student capstone project moving ahead.
• Lab has done some ATP testing (see microfiber/squeegee testing above).