We all want to do our part to protect the environment, and you can make small but meaningful choices every day to do so. While it’s important to thoroughly sanitize athletic equipment and tactical gear, harsh chemical treatments can create more pollution and toxicity in the process.
But you don’t have to give up your green goals to stay healthy – you can use ozone. Ozone is a naturally occuring gas that not only protects earth from dangerous UV rays but also safely sanitizes gear and equipment without the use of water or chemicals.
Safer Than Chemicals
Typical sanitizers rely on a myriad of chemicals to kill germs, but what they leave behind might be even worse. While aerosol sanitizers are useful for reaching nooks and crannies of gear, they also release chemicals into the air. These chemicals are suspended in the air, allowing for people to breathe them in, and then eventually reach the atmosphere where they further damage the protective ozone layer.
While residue from chemical cleaners can harm your team on their own, they also have the ability to harm natural habitats and farmland. Antimicrobial agents that enter the waterstream may end up contaminating soil and ultimately finding their way into our food. Also, fragrances used in liquid disinfectants are not biodegradable and pollute the water where they contaminate fish and other aquatic life.
Bleach specifically is a common pollutant of water systems. Chlorine bleach is often thought of as the end-all-be-all of sanitizing products, but it also combines with water to create dangerous organic pollutants. When you send your used bleach mixture down the drain, it has the potential to make entire waterways unsafe and harm much of the wildlife in the process. Ozone, however, packs even more of a sanitizing punch than chlorine bleach without any of these dangerous, negative side effects associated with bleach and other chemical sanitizers.
No Residue
Once you wipe away liquid chemical cleansers, the danger is gone, right? Think again. Actually, the residue left behind continues to evaporate into the atmosphere in the form of noxious fumes and has the potential to cause harmful side effects for humans, including rashes, breathing problems, and damage to the eyes.
Not only do these residues potentially harm people and air quality, but they may also provide a perfect opportunity for new microbial organisms to grow. The residue left behind by some liquid cleaning products actually provides food for any germs left behind, ultimately creating more germs and the need for another round of disinfection.
When sanitizing with ozone, there’s no liquid involved and therefore, no residue left behind. This means you can trust that gear is immediately safe to use without fear of noxious gasses, skin irritation or microbial growth.
Less Water Waste
We do not have an unlimited supply of safe, clean water, so water conservation is essential for the sake of both our ecosystems and our food crops. Limiting unnecessary water usage keeps plant and animal life from overheating and dehydration, especially in times of drought.
Unfortunately, traditional disinfectants usually require massive amounts of water that will be washed down the drain, especially when cleaning larger equipment. Those who are conscious of water conservation efforts should look to ozone – which requires no water at all. Instead, ozone is generated in a natural process using light, and the ozone molecules destroy germs in a completely dry cycle.
Gear Lasts Longer
Not only are chemicals dangerous to the environment, they can harm gear as well and add to the negative environmental impact. Using liquid to sanitize gear deteriorates the materials more quickly, ultimately resulting in more gear being thrown out and replaced. The trashed gear then ends up in a landfill. There, any leftover chemical residue can seep into the soil and possibly into water supplies, and the plastic materials will likely never decompose.
At Global Ozone, we want you to be safe from disease, harsh chemicals, and the damaging effects of environmental hazards. That’s why we count on ozone to disinfect and deodorize everything from helmets and shoulder pads to firefighters’ jackets and police gear.
Check out Sports-O-Zone and Decon Zone to see how your organization can protect your teams and our planet. Get in touch for a quote.
