Steve Hanson

If you're thinking about offering green cleaning services in 2008, then one of the things you must consider is the equipment you use. In last week's article we gave the example of the type of vacuum cleaners you may be using. If you use upright vacuum cleaners with a cloth bag, then you're allowing dust to become airborne because the vacuum doesn't have a filtration system to keep the dust contained in the machine. Your upright vacuum is not an environmentally friendly piece of equipment and you should consider switching to another type of vacuum with a HEPA filtration system.

If you clean commercial buildings you probably use conventional mops and buckets. However conventional mops tend to spread soil around, whereas microfiber mop pads do a better job of capturing and removing soil, which helps to eliminate cross contamination. In addition, microfiber mops are lighter than the traditional bulky mop, which means they're more ergonomically friendly. Also, since microfibers need little water, there is no heavy bucket for your employees to lug around, resulting in fewer injuries.

Hard floor equipment such as high speed burnishers or slow speed machines should have vacuum attachments that capture the dust generated by the machine. This prevents the dust from becoming airborne.

You may also want to consider replacing your buffing pads with nylo-grit brushes. Buffing pads eventually wear out and need to be thrown away. Nylo-grit brushes however, can last for years so there is much less waste added to land fills.

When replacing an automatic scrubber, look for a model that minimizes the amount of water it uses and maximizes the amount of water recovered in the cleaning process. There are even models available that reduce or eliminate the need for any cleaning chemicals, which is very environmentally friendly.

When shopping for carpet extractors, choose models that have a high level of water recovery so carpets will dry faster.

There are many more things you can do to upgrade your cleaning equipment in order to be more environmentally friendly with your cleaning services. For more information, check out our new Green Cleaning Ebook featured above.

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