With environment, social and governance considerations top of mind, owing to issues such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic, global markets are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious. Consequently, there is growing demand for the GP² Eco-friendly Industrial Degreaser and Commercial Sanitiser from chemicals manufacturer EDS Chemicals.

“GP²  is a product unlike any other in the marketplace and is here to make a marked difference in preserving and assisting in improving the state of the environment with excellent cleaning, degreasing and sanitising qualities,” says holding company EDS Projects business development manager Julie Davies.

The South Africa-based company is exporting the product to the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Australia for their eco-friendly consumers. With EDS Chemicals concluding manufacturing agreements with Australian and UK companies, GP² products will soon be manufactured in these countries.

Being an affordable, eco-friendly, non-toxic, non-flammable degreaser that also acts as a cleaner and sanitiser, considerably reducing procurement spend, thousands of litres of GP² have been ordered this year by local mining companies.

GP² enables effective cleaning in the mining sector and the industrial, commercial, heavy engineering and mechanical equipment industries and delivers outstanding results, explains Davies, highlighting that the versatile products are an environment-friendly alternative to standard hazardous solvents used for applications from general maintenance cleaning to deep cleaning of sophisticated processes.

“GP² has no flash point and is therefore safe to use on operating machinery, not posing a fire hazard in manufacturing businesses, workshops, canteens, kitchens, offices, stores, warehouses, mining machinery or in the field,” and the GP² range was “developed to provide all sectors of the economy with a safe, reliable general-purpose cleaner that not only degreases but also sanitises simultaneously,” says Davies.

She adds that the high-strength degreaser further offers excellent antibacterial qualities, delivering a 99.999% bio kill rate, confirmed by an independent South African National Accreditation System laboratory.

“The GP² eco-friendly degreaser and sanitiser makes cleaning and sanitising surfaces easy and convenient by removing viruses, germs, bacteria and grease.  It is the most important effective eco-friendly product for countering viruses that require a killing agent to destroy envelopes on the virus itself,” notes Davies.

While alcohol is a traditional ingredient in hand sanitisers and is widely recommended as an effective destroyer of envelope viruses such as the coronavirus, some viruses have developed a resistance to ethanol, says EDS Chemicals. 

However, sodium hydroxide, which is a common ingredient in soap used in GP² sanitisers and the active ingredient in the GP² degreaser, has shown to be effective in removing proteins, nucleic acids, yeast, bacteria and viruses.  

The GP² hand and surface sanitiser range has anti-bacterial and moisturising qualities with glutaraldehyde as the safe, eco-friendly activating agent which is also used in the GP² Commercial product, notes EDS Chemicals.  

The SANS 1828-compliant GP² degreaser and sanitiser is also suitable for the cleaning of food processing machines and is used during Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points compliance by local food manufacturers. GP² is also EN 1276 certified. This European standard is used in the hospitality and food industry, standardising the effectiveness of chemical disinfectants.

“The no-alcohol product kills E.coli, P.aeruginosa, S.aureus, A.brasiliensis and the usual bacteria, and is safe for children and adults, practising Muslims and vegans,” emphasises Davies.

All GP² products are water-based, lab-tested, non-toxic, alcohol free, non-flammable and exclude harmful solvents. Owned and developed by EDS Projects in 2005, GP² is manufactured in Johannesburg using locally sourced ingredients.

About 30 people are employed at the facility, which has the capacity to manufacture between 50 000 l  and 250 000 l a month. Having expanded its manufacturing in 2010 in response to demand it intends to further ramp up its capacity should demand dictate.