Amway, distilleries creating and donating hand sanitizer
Contact Tee Mariga (tmariga@gmail.com)
Amway, distilleries creating and donating hand sanitizer
by: Christa Ferguson
Posted: Mar 19, 2020 / 02:19 AM EDT / Updated: Mar 19, 2020 / 10:45 PM EDT
ADA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Two Michigan distilleries and Amway have something in common during this coronavirus outbreak: they’ve retooled their production to pump out much-needed hand sanitizer for those who need it.
Amway says a team of more than 40 employees launched Project Light Speed Monday. They used 9,000 gallons of ethanol and other raw materials available at Amway’s Ada campus to create a hand sanitizer that will be donated to Spectrum Health hospital employees handling the mounting cases of COVID-19.
“We were trying to figure out how to pay them and they responded, ‘Oh, we’re just going give it to you,’ and I almost fell out of my chair,” Kurt Knoth, vice president of Spectrum’s Supply Chain and Security Services, told News 8 Thursday. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh; that’s just amazing.'”
Amway says the formula it’s using is based on hand sanitizer it first developed for China during the SARS epidemic. It contains 66% ethanol — above the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of 60%. The first 10,000-unit batch of hand sanitizer will ship to Spectrum Health Friday. Another 1,000 units will go to Holland Hospital.
“We were just excited to help our community,” said David Madiol, head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Amway. “We dusted off the ingredients for that and the team went to work and created this packaging and labeling and the product itself.”
Amway says it has ordered another 8,000 gallons of ethanol to produce two more batches of hand sanitizer, which should roll off the line in coming weeks. Those batches will be distributed to employees, Amway business owners as well as Kids’ Food Basket, which is bustling to assemble meals for children and families in need.
“It’s incredible,” Knoth said. “We should buy all of our hand sanitizer from Amway going forward.”
Whitmer announced Thursday that state laws prohibiting beverage distilleries from making denatured alcohol have been relaxed during the coronavirus response, paving the way for distilleries to produce ethanol-based hand sanitizers to help meet demand. Normally businesses need an industrial manufacturing permit to do so, which no distiller in Michigan currently has.
“I am profoundly grateful for the Michigan distilleries who are putting people before profit and are using their production facilities to make hand sanitizer during this COVID-19 emergency, she stated in a news release.
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