Antimicrobial resistance is one of the foremost threats of the 21st century, with a disruptive impact on global health and economies estimated to be on the scale of climate change. The World Health Organisation has called for innovative solutions to the threat posed by multi-drug resistant ‘superbugs’ with new, multifaceted approaches to control bacterial infections being urgently required. Prior work from our group and others have shown the potential of first-row transition metal ions to prosecute antimicrobial activity against a broad range of bacterial pathogens of animals and humans. Here, we worked with Ascend Performance Materials using their Acteev™ technology platform to investigate antimicrobial applications of ionic zinc incorporated into polyamide polymer matrices in an active form. We report that zinc-embedded Acteev™ materials exert antimicrobial activity against a broad range of high priority bacterial pathogens including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Using the industry standard ISO20743 testing framework the antimicrobial efficacy of Acteev™ materials was shown for laboratory reference strains and multidrug resistant strains of S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae, E. coli, Acinetobacter baumannii and Enterococcus faecium. Time to kill analyses reveal that Acteev™ exerts potent antibacterial activity shortly after contact, with potent activity within 2-6 hours. Further, elemental analyses of Acteev™ materials show that embedded zinc ions are retained after multiple wash cycles highlighting the potential for re-use, where appropriate. Collectively, these data show that zinc-embedded Acteev™ materials have a range of potential applications across a breadth of settings, such as in hospitals and in the community, to enable control of bacterial pathogen transmission in an antibiotic independent manner.