Are you part of the healthcare, hospitality, construction or manufacturing industry? Or do you supply cleaning products to them?
Effective cleaning with minimal waste is an important global concern. And whether you’re a supplier or an end user, you need to make sure that you’re doing all you can maximise your green credentials.
But how do you clean effectively with minimum impact on the environment? Read our blog to get 5 tips on how you can clean more with less waste.
1 – Train your team to ensure they clean methodically
Whether your team cleans using a traditional bucket and mop, cloths and chemicals or impregnated wipes, the way they clean forms a crucial part of the amount of waste they create.
If your team is methodical and systematic in their approach, you’ll save on both products and time. Ensuring that your team gets into a routine and cleans from top to bottom, for example, will not only make them more efficient, but will also reduce the amount of waste they create.
2 – Use the right product in the right way
It may sound obvious, but if your team is using the wrong product for the job – a surface cleaner when you require a disinfectant, for example – you’ll use more than necessary. So not only will your cleaning not be up to scratch, but waste production will skyrocket.
Cleaning chemicals and impregnated wipes are function-specific. They’re often colour-coded, meaning it’s straightforward to identify the right product for the job.
And if you’re using an impregnated wipe, you can get maximum use out of it by folding it. For example, Uniwipe products can be used to carry out the eight-fold British Institute of Cleaning Standards technique. They’re also dispensed one wipe at a time, meaning you get the one wipe you need while the others stay fresh in the pack.
3 – Recycle as much as possible and use recyclable packaging
Responsible manufacturers put impregnated cloths and chemicals in recyclable packaging. If you’re a supplier, you’ll enhance your green credentials by making it your policy to specialise in these products.
There are various styles of packaging, and wipes generally take up less storage space than traditional alternatives. However, the amount of waste generated by wipe packaging varies wildly. Uniwipe’s pouches generate 900% less waste in weight – and a huge 1500% less waste in volume – than a major competitor’s tub-style packaging.
Whatever your industry, you’ll reduce your waste by not only using products with recyclable packaging, but by adhering to stringent recycling practices.
4 – Save on water, reduce laundry costs and improve effectiveness by using wipes
You need to recycle wherever you can. But remember, reusable cloths have to be rinsed constantly and laundered at the end of the day. The soapy chemical mix then has to be processed before it can be released into the waterways. Traditional cloths therefore use additional energy and water, not to mention chemicals.
What’s more, they become less effective as the day goes on, as the cloth gathers dirt and can even start to re-spread it.
When you’re deciding on your cleaning product range, you need to consider the overall picture, and balance the cost and energy of laundering against the waste created by an impregnated wipe.
To give you some comparison, Uniwipe provides 19 square metres of clean cloth compressed into a volume of 2.5 litres. Rinsing and laundering the equivalent of just 1 kg of cloth – even with the most efficient machine – would require around 19 litres of water, while typical washers would require between 22 and 30 litres. (Alliance for Water Efficiency)
When you look at it like that – and consider that the right wipes are anti-bacterial and eliminate cross-contamination – the choice is straightforward.
5 – Reduce chemical usage, remove chemical mist and eliminate dry wiping
One of the main reasons that businesses create excess waste is down to chemical spillages. Impregnated cloths make these a thing of the past. There are no chemicals to store, mix or spill, saving time and reducing waste.
Many areas across numerous sectors are traditionally cleaned with chemical spray and wiped off with paper. Not only does this create unpleasant chemical mist, it also uses large volumes of paper, and increases the risk of ‘dry wiping’, where the surface is merely wiped and not actually cleaned.
Uniwipe’s colour-coded products eliminate cross-contamination, dry wiping and chemical mist and give you the exact chemical concentration you require for each job, meaning you’ll never use more than you need. What’s more, 50% of the fabric in our wipes is from a renewable source and is biodegradable.
As a result, they’re a cleaner, greener option for businesses and suppliers looking to clean more with less waste.
Our extensive range of wipes is competitively priced and represents the latest cleaning advancements across multiple sectors. Get in touch for more information.
