Whether it’s a crayon stain you need to remove or anything else, melamine sponges come in handy these days.
Also known as “magic sponges” these are considered to be the best for a cleaning job whether stains on your walls, floor, or your new dining table. But instructions do come along with the use of these melamine sponges, as wrong use of it can actually ruin your favorite table.
A popular cleaning tool but it’s not wildly popular among people as it is not considered safe for children. It is considered to be one of the evergreen cleaning tools and has different uses of it.
Melamine sponges aka infamous magic sponges are made of the organic component that has multiple uses. You can easily find melamine in soft dampening materials to any dishware set as well.
Melamine sponges have a high strength and superfine structure that acts almost like a sandpaper with a grit of microscopic level.
Sometimes you don’t even need a soap or any detergent to pair with it. Dampen a melamine sponge with water and it gets the cleaning on a gritty surface in no time. Crayon marks, colored pencils or markers, paint marks, melamine sponge is a one-stop solution.
As compared to cloth-based sponges, melamine sponges have a lot of advantages. All you need is water to get rid of the mess without any chemical substance use.
Although they have many merits to them, you might not want to keep on using them as it’s not very environmentally friendly. Your daily chemical scrubbers are more likely to be toxic as compared to melamine sponges.
PROS:
- You can easily get the dirt out with these. To increase the better performance, soak the foam in hot water and the air bubbles in it expand. The foam then tends to hold onto and suck in more dirt than your normal sponge.
- A 100% melamine foam is reusable as compared to a normal foam. If a normal sponge is attached to melamine then you can use it a couple of times only.
- It’s safe to use not only because of it’s soft texture but also because of the composition which is not harmful at all.
- These sponges have a versatile role. You can clean fiberglass, remove crayon and marker marks from furniture and walls, wipe marks from leather, cleans spray paint marks, and take care of dirt on clothes.
CONS:
- Melamine sponges or foams are not cost effective especially if you’re planning to clean a whole lot of big places. So after a couple of times of use, you’re actually throwing away your money. The cost of this cleaner sponge mounts up with time. You can make them effective by cutting them into small pieces to get the maximum use out of it.
- Melamine helps you with cleaning almost every surface but wood is not one of them.
- Children like to help with cleaning but giving them melamine sponges is not a good idea. Children have sensitive skin and according to a few reports they tend to damage their skin while using the sponges. Supervising your children is compulsory if you want them to tag along with the cleaning.
What is melamine foam made of?
A mixture of soft and hard structures, melamine foam is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. These components use a combined strength to get rid of stubborn marks on almost every surface without damaging it.
This foam was discovered in the early 21st century and was considered the most effective cleaning tool. Only requiring water, melamine foam is an effective cleaner that cleans on harsh surfaces effectively.
Very similar looking to ordinary sponges, this foam acts like fine sandpaper that removes stain gently. Porous sponge material that has a softer outside but is actually quite abrasive and consists of tiny air pockets that pick up the stains effectively while being damp.
Despite the advantages, melamine foam or sponges tend to break down as a whole quickly due to the porous material. So if you’re at a massive cleaning job, you might want to get yourself a whole box of it to get the job done.
Is melamine foam bad for the environment?
Melamine foam or sponges are very effective when you want to get the stubborn stain out but they are not exactly what we would call “green”.
Their composition makes them very vulnerable to continuously harsh usage so as a conclusion they render, break down, hence easily turn into useless regardless of the advantages.
Since these foams are not biodegradable, they are not toxic to the environment.
Not the environment in particular, but if you are planning on keeping on using melamine sponges on your wood surfaces you will definitely experience damaged surfaces that are irreversible.
Is melamine foam recyclable?
Melamine foam has the property of being biodegradable and at the same has the possibility of being recyclable as well.
It doesn’t require any external source to do the cleaning job, just a little bit of water and without any chemical substance use, you get the cleaning done.
