Emulsification

I've used the word emulsification for years. There was a kind of cryptic explanation in one of the janitorial trade journals recently, so I thought I'd add a definition to this resource.

I actually got "B"'s in organic chemistry in college, I've been in the commercial cleaning business for almost 25 years, I own a soap company in another market - and I still had to google about 5 different definitions before I (kind of) got it.

Basically the soap molecules suspend and or dissolve in water - whereas soil molecules generally do not.

The soap molecules then clump together in little balls called micelles (micelles link to wikipedia ). These clumps can in turn attract oil and other soils because of their chemistry, which they then surround (encapsulate) and the soil now becomes suspended inside the soap balls and can be mopped or vacuumed up.

Bob

Electrolyzed Water

It's kind of interesting to ask a salesperson in the commercial cleaning equipment industry how a product they are hawking works.

Sort of like asking an aboriginal medicine man or shaman how things work - the explanation usually is pretty circular and devolves to something like "demons do it" or "it just works".

Being of something of a scientific turn of mind I don't find that terribly satisfying, tho in point of fact, if it does indeed work, do I really need to know more ?

Hence when I went to the ISSA janitorial supplier show last fall and asked every sales person in the Activeion booth how the product worked with no particularly satisfying answers, I was not surprised.

I didn't bother going over to the Tenant Company booth (they invented the technology some years ago), as I wasn't that interested.

Cleaning Management wrote it up a couple of months ago, so I will try to give it justice.

First, it has all the advantages of hydrogen peroxide cleaners - no chemicals to purchase, "greenness" because of the lack of chemicals, safety and no detergent residues to attract dirt back to the newly cleaned surface (resoiling).

Basically the magic word is "cavitation"

Cavitation definition

The electrical current temporarily separates the water into little tiny oppositely charged bubbles ( I suspect similar to an ozone generator which temporarily breaks down oxygen into it's component ions) which 'explode' the dirt off the surface cleaned.

Activeion website.

Activeion also makes the claim that by amping up the electrical charge they can disintegrate bacteria (see electroporation) as well as physically remove them, sanitizing / disinfecting the surface as well. I won't reprise my posts on disinfecting (killing) vs removing pathogens here, but for purpose of brevity both are important.

These claims are not accepted (at this writing) by the FDA or other regulators, but they do make sense.

We have the technology - but in general hydrogen peroxide and our Kaifly flat surface protocols are more labor efficient. The Activeion dispenser is pretty heavy and if used continuously tends to tire the janitor. However, for use on a janitor cart for, say, restroom cleaning where you spend a few seconds cleaning each of a variety of surfaces, with a variety of tools this is a pretty good technology. It's only the repetitive stuff (think wiping desks in a school classroom or tables in a day care) where the fatigue factor would be relevant.

Bob

Peroxide cleaners

After getting ignored by all the "name vendors" of specialty hydrogen peroxide cleaners' janitorial supply distributors in town, we found a distributor of Betco's "Green Earth - Peroxide Cleaner" and have standardized our starter kits on it.

Peroxide cleaners have a number of advantages over conventional cleaners.

While not certified as a disinfectant, as a potent anti oxidant it is almost inconceivable that it doesn't kill bacteria directly.

One cleaner can be used for glass cleaning, neutral cleaning of floors, and all purpose cleaning - and, unlike a number of "3 in 1 " products we have tested over the years it :

- Cleans good (yay !! ) in all three applications

- Is cost competitive.

Historically 3 in 1 products have done neither, probably because they were so sensitive to getting the dilution rate absolutely correct, especially when cleaning glass.

Almost totally non - toxic - although I wouldn't recommend drinking it.

Breaks down into water and oxygen - no cleaning chemicals of any type are involved.

This also is helpful when we use the carpet cleaning version of Betco's Green Earth hydrogen peroxide line as there will be no issues of re soiling due to residual detergents and should be no issue of browning from residual alkalinity of detergent residue in the carpet effecting a color change on the carpet's dyes.

Bob

Microfiber - additional benefits

In addition to the green credentials and superior productivity, microfiber has at least one additional advantage ...................

.......... ergonomics - those of you that have mopped large expanses of tile floor with string mops know that that operation is a "young man's game' - tough on the back and very tiring. The microfiber mops are lower weight (less water used) and configured like a dustmop so you just push it - you don't have to do all the lifting and swinging that string mops require. A half hour of micro fiber mopping will save you an hour and a half of hard work - huge.

And - anytime you have an ergonomic advantage in the janitorial business there will eventually be hard dollar savings on injuries, workers comp, absenteeism, turnover, training, etc.

Bob

How to choose Entry Mats for your building

It's that time of year here in the great frozen north - snow, rain and ice (and salt and sand on the ice) are about to reappear in our commercial cleaning customers' facilities.

Here's another article about properly matting your facility to minimize damage to your carpets and vinyl tile, and to minimize the need for restorative carpet cleaning.

A couple of important points:

A) "most buildings are undermatted" - you need 3 or 4 steps on a mat to properly clean sand, salt and moisture from your shoes. More if you are using only fabric rental mats (ineffective for sand and salt - useful only for moisture). Plastic scrubber mats before the fabric rental mats are essential to remove particulates like ice, snow, salt, sand and mud.

B) Frequent vacuuming and even having additional mats you can change out midday if the conditions are such that the mat becomes completely saturated are going to make a huge difference. Sometime watch people walking over a saturated mat - all you are doing is exchanging one persons wet footprints for someone else's once they are saturated.

By isolating the soil to the entry this way you avoid tracking it around the building, and among other things make life easy for the janitors.

Matting Article

The website is for all issues of the magazine - drill down to April, 2010, page 40, Facilities Focus to find the article.

Bob

Green Cleaning - non certified products

Some of the commercial cleaning products we use are certifiable as green - vacuum cleaners, extractors, chemicals, and so on.

Some are not - mops, buckets, disinfectants (tho this should come thru soon) and so on.

However, green principles can still be applied to these products.

For instance, our microfiber mopping protocols are not per se green, but the lower chemical use they make possible contributes to a "greener" overall cleaning program.

That they last much longer than string mops means less waste in the landfill, also a "green" outcome.

(I'll pass on the energy consumed in laundering them, and I have no idea whether string mops or microfiber mops are the more green to manufacture. I suspect microfiber - the amount of water, petrochemicals and energy used in growing cotton for string mops is staggering - even compared to microfiber which is itself a petroleum product.)

Here's a link to an article (written by one of the 200 or so certifying agencies) pointing out how to look at "greenness" in the non green certified elements of our product / service.

Certification

Pretty much every janitorial supply vendor has legitimate "green" products now - but some are "more legitimate" than others.

Bob

Green Cleaning - Multiple Certifying Entities

Quoting From Cleaning Management Magazine, "worldwide, over 200 (repeat 200) companies, organizations and groups offer third party green cleaning certification ........"

Including :

CIMS - ISSA's Cleaning Industry Management Standard

Green Seal Inc.

USGBC - the US Green Building Council

USEPA - the EPA's "Design for the Environment"

GEI - Greenguard Environmental Institute

CRI - The Carpet and Rug Institute's Seal of Approval program.

(and 194 plus others - too numerous to mention)

We're currently standardized on vacuums that are CRI certified and I've talked at length in other posts about the "greenness" of the commercial cleaning chemicals and procedures our janitors use.

Bob