Green Cleaning Equipment Upgrades

http://www.thejanitorialstore.com

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.