Green Cleaning Equipment Upgrades
If you're thinking about offering green cleaning services, one of the things you should consider is your cleaning equipment. For example, if you use an upright vacuum cleaner with a cloth bag, you're allowing dust to become airborne. The reason is the vacuum doesn't have a filtration system to keep the dust contained within the machine. Your upright vacuum is not an environmentally friendly piece of equipment. If you are planning of offering green cleaning services, you should consider switching to a vacuum with a HEPA filtration system.
Environmental responsibility is on everyone's minds these days, including leading manufacturers of commercial cleaning equipment. They continue to develop new and improved equipment that is safer for the environment and the end user. Green cleaning equipment uses less power, less water, minimizes chemical exposure and improves indoor air quality. The manufacturers also take into consideration ergonomics to make it less harmful for the employees that are using it for prolonged periods of time.
Upgrading to green cleaning equipment reduces environmental impact
Below are some strategies to implement and maintain green cleaning equipment:
Cleaning Tools
If you clean commercial buildings, you may still be using conventional mops and buckets. However, conventional mops tend to spread soil around, whereas microfiber mop pads do a much better job of capturing and removing soil, which helps to eliminate cross contamination and reduces facility contaminants. In addition, microfiber mops are ergonomically friendly since they are lighter than the traditional bulky mops. And since microfibers need little water, there are no heavy bucket for your employees to lug around, resulting in fewer injuries and less time off.
Powered Cleaning Equipment
Vacuums with the HEPA filtration system recover hazardous material by containing them to the filter and not allowing them to release back into the air. This reduces air borne allergens, which results in a healthier facility for both your customers and cleaning technicians.
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 less rubbish in our landfills.
When replacing an automatic scrubber, look for a model that minimizes the amount of water it uses, maximizes the amount of water recovered in the cleaning process and includes on-board chemical metering systems. There are some models available that reduce or eliminate the need for any cleaning chemicals altogether, which is very environmentally friendly.
When shopping for carpet extractors, choose models that have a high level of water recovery. This allows carpets to dry faster.
Look for machines that use fewer chemicals or are chemical free cleaners to reduce the amount of toxins re-entering our water system, air and soil.
There are many more things you can do to upgrade your cleaning equipment in order to be more environmentally friendly with your cleaning services.
Copyright The Janitorial Store. All Rights Reserved
Green Cleaning Training Program
Everything You Need to Know About Providing Environmentally Friendly Cleaning Services
Visit our Store for Certification Training Programs
