Green Seal recently announced that the first products certified to its Standard for Environmental Innovation (GS-20) are a complete line of floor-care pads from Americo Manufacturing. The certified products include all of Americo’s Full Cycle Floor Pads, both abrasive and non-abrasive, which offer enhanced biodegradation in landfill conditions and to contain 100% recycled content and natural fiber.
“Green Seal is delighted to have Americo’s Full Cycle Floor Pads lead the way as the first products to earn GS-20 certification,” said Arthur B. Weissman, Ph.D., Green Seal’s president and CEO. “The pads are a stellar example of what happens when sustainability, innovation, and performance combine in product design.”
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 also provides end-of-life instructions to the market for disposing of the pads in landfills that capture landfill gas and convert it to energy.
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.
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