ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

New York State has entered into an agreement with Eastman Kodak to help it dispose of a huge glut of out-of-code hand sanitiser.

The product was manufactured by prison inmates at three US state correctional facilities in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was part of a plan by the then New York governor Andrew Cuomo to boost the state's limited supplies.

NYS Clean hand sanitiser was produced and distributed at no cost to the consumer.  But following massive over-production, much of it is now past its sell-by date.

Sanitisers generally last between two and three years before expiry because some of the alcohol evaporates over time, making the product less effective.

The fact hand sanitiser is highly flammable means it has to be stored outdoors to meet fire code regulations. Around 700,000 gallons of the product has therefore been housed under tarpaulin at a former airfield in New York State for months. It occupies 4,000 pallets stretching the length of three football fields. And it has been causing a major headache for officials.

Eastman Kodak has now agreed to transport the 168 trailer loads of sanitiser to Eastman Business Park in Rochester where it will distill it to extract the isopropyl alcohol for reuse in manufacturing. The process is expected to take about 10 months.

New York State is said to have paid $1.4 million to Eastman Kodak for the isopropyl alcohol used in the production of NYS Clean hand sanitiser. It will now have to pay the same company $2.3 million to dispose of it.