It’s a question that many facility managers ask themselves … do you use a floor finish with zinc in order to achieve that great, hard, beautiful shine or do you eliminate zinc from your accepted ingredients and be kinder to your water systems?
As debated in our industry, the primary problem with zinc is its effect in waste treatment plants. According to the Janitorial Products Pollution Prevention Product, sewage treatment plants “cannot take such metals out of the sewage very well. Enough zinc gets through the treatment plant to harm shellfish and other animals living in the river or bay where the treated sewage is discharged.”
Many have argued that the amount disposed of in the course of our use in floor finishes is quite small and the real problem comes from the manufacturing plants where the zinc cross-linked polymers are made.
In the end, it perhaps doesn’t matter what the cause is from … whether it is the zinc compound going down your drain or those dispersed by the manufacturing plant. If you can eliminate zinc from floor finish products but still have a great looking floor, why wouldn’t you? We’ve discovered two options for eliminating conventional zinc from your floor finish.
Zinc-Free Floor Finish
For the zinc-free purist there is a new Green Seal certified product called G2 Green Finish. It’s fast drying and levels nicely. Not only is it zinc-free, but does not contain Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEO) phthalates or ammonia. It also meets the new 1% VOC regulation, so everyone can breathe easier. The deep gloss is truly remarkable for a zinc-free floor finish.
New Nano Zinc Technology
We’ve discovered an extraordinary product made with a new technology that gives you the best of both worlds … the benefits of zinc-cross polymers with the environmental advantages of eliminating conventional zinc molecules.
How is it done? Essential Industries has created a patented non-zinc technology that is used in its “X-Coat™ Nano” floor finish. This chemistry has created a molecule that performs like a conventional zinc molecule in its polymer matrix, but is miniscule in comparison. It does not contain any ammonia complexes (as does a conventional zinc molecule), so it actually performs better than the zinc-based floor finishes of the past while being environmentally preferred by waste treatment facilities.
Since there are no ammonia complexes, X-Coat Nano is able to form extremely strong, dense cross-linking between the polymers, which results in a rapid gloss build (only 20 minutes in between coats). It is highly resistant to soil and heel marks, and significantly extends your maintenance cycle. Without ammonia, It smells much better, too!
Essential Industries has a great informational video that explains this new technology and how it achieves its superior floor finish performance. The video does an excellent job of demonstrating what cross-polymers are, how they perform in a floor finish, and the implications of a denser, closer weave in everyday performance.
Call Cavalier today at 888.569.0066 to see how X-Coat Nano solves the question of “to zinc or not to zinc.”
