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Advocating for a fair and equitable legislative and regulatory environment for the cleaning products industry remains one of the top imperatives for the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) in 2024, says Melissa Hockstad, president & CEO, during her ACI Mid-Year Meeting “State of the Association” address.
“The cleaning product supply chain is navigating turbulent tides, here in the U.S. and globally,” says Hockstad.
“One of our most important roles is to seek business certainty in the legislative and regulatory arenas. That has become much more difficult with the onslaught of regulations both at the state and federal levels.”
Hockstad cited recent research from the National Association of Manufacturers, which found that the average U.S. manufacturing company pays over $29,000 per employee per year to comply with federal regulations, which is more than double the regulatory burden of other industries. The burden is even greater for small U.S. manufacturers, or those with fewer than 50 employees, at an estimated $50,100 per employee per year.
“Those are real numbers with real impact,” says Hockstad. She added that ACI is engaged more than ever with officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the issues that are most critical, ranging from TSCA to sustainability to Safer Choice.
Hockstad also said ACI will work to ensure potential EPA risk management policies on the cleaning chemical byproduct 1,4-Dioxane do not result in overburdensome limitations of critical chemistry processes for the production of surfactants and other cleaning product ingredients.
FDA and Topical Antiseptic Ingredients
ACI has been actively involved in negotiations with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on its implementation of the Over-The-Counter Monograph Drug User Fee Program (OMUFA).
“Our focus is on ensuring that the Food and Drug Administration has the safety and efficacy data it needs to support continued access for consumers and healthcare workers to these critical hand hygiene products,” says Hockstad. “ACI’s primary goal in this negotiation was to develop clearer mechanisms to obtain critical and timely feedback from FDA on our safety and efficacy testing program to ensure its continued success.”
Sustainability
This fall, ACI will publish a new Sustainability Report, which will highlight the advances being made in the expansion of ACI’s Sustainable Feedstocks Initiative and provide case studies focused on companies’ sustainability successes. Accompanying the launch of the report, ACI will bring back the highly successful #OurFutureIsClean Challenge for a third year, in connection with the water-based charity, Dig Deep.
ACI is also launching a Sustainability Spotlight Award focused on sustainable innovation. This inaugural award will be presented at ACI’s 2025 Convention.
Other priorities for ACI in the year ahead include: ACI is committed to Environmental Justice and has developed an action plan to encourage our collective learning and improvement through its three key tenants: 1) Education, 2) Outreach and Partnerships and 3) Reporting on our progress. In these ways ACI and its members will strive to continuously improve and make the cleaning product industry a better neighbor to all communities. Read Melissa Hockstad’s thought leadership piece on the topic.
This fall, ACI will enter the Senior Year of our award-winning Class of Clean, which provides practical advice on cleaning and fabric care to college students, who are among the wave of new and future consumers buying our industry’s products.