October 4, 2007
Greener cleaning: New mops, fragrance-free soaps make debut
UW Custodial Services is giving the old mop and water bucket the heave-ho in favor of a more ecologically friendly way of cleaning floors — and also switching to a new fragrance-free foam soap in campus bathrooms.
The changes are part of the Green Cleaning program, an ongoing effort by the people at Custodial Services — like so many other parts of the UW these days — to find less toxic ways of getting their work done.
“Our Green Cleaning program is a journey, an evolution, and we’re continually looking for opportunities to do things in more sustainable, greener ways,” said Gene Woodard, director of the Custodial Services Division of Facilities Services.
Woodard said Custodial Services is starting a pilot program for better floor cleaning, using new micro-fiber wet mops with soap dispensed from the handle, rather than the age-old wheeled metal bucket and wringer with a cotton mop.
“They’re flat and have tightly woven fibers that the dirt clings to. They do a better job of removing soils from the floor and reduce the chances of cross-contamination,” Woodard said.
The new mops also are lighter and eliminate the need for a water bucket, which can help spread dirt by the reuse of cleaning solution and water. “You have 300 custodians filling up their buckets two to three times a day and then pouring that water into the sewer system — all of that is going to be eliminated,” Woodard said.
Developed for use in hospitals, the new mops dispense a cleaning solution directly to the floor, rather than from a bucket of increasingly dirty water.
Yang Sook Choe, manager of program operations for Custodial Services, said with the old mops dirt tended to build up along the baseboards, but that the new mops are better able to handle such tight spots.
Woodard also is proud of a new, fragrance-free foam soap now to be used in 1,600 dispensers in campus bathrooms.
The new product is a mild, unscented, biodegradable product called GOJO Green Certified Foam Hand Cleaner. The soap, Woodard said, has been certified by Green Seal, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the environment and changing the marketplace by promoting the making and selling of environmentally responsible products and services.
Woodard said Custodial Services has benefited from the advice of Anne C. Steinemann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs, who has guided them on issues of fragrance and its effect on the environment. “She has been most helpful to us on the fragrance issue — helped educate us on fragrances and products and helped increase our awareness as a department.”
Steinemann researches the harmful effects of synthetic fragrances on human health. Of the switch in soaps at the UW, she said, “This is a landmark accomplishment, because fragrances have been linked to a range of adverse health effects, not just on the people who use the soaps but the rest of the community, through second-hand-scents.”
She said fragrances in soap serve no hygienic function and last much longer than people might think, including being washed down drains to pollute Puget Sound.
Of the move to the new soap, Steinemann said, “This is big news. The UW will be heralded as a leader in this area. People may not think this is big but 10 years from now they’ll say, ‘Look what they did.'”
