Excitedly we read in cleaning magazines and on the internet about new generation machines being introduced to the industry. Production companies report a great interest for their latest products suggesting that manual floor cleaning would be history. And yes, our industry needs these developments, as available workforce is already short supply, and that availability will not be improving in future neither.
But looking at those articles and videos, we should also ask ourselves are the cleaning companies getting the correct support they need? Too often the machines are presented as miracle products that can do all the work and yet it might lead to disinvestments and frustration on the customer side.
It was around 2010 when the ecological aspects within industrial cleaning came into being. It started with "green" chemicals and their packaging.
The first initiatives were concentrates of the same old chemicals, reducing transport and packing material, followed by more environmental chemicals with less or no direct impact to the environment when getting into the drain.
The industry started using less water for cleaning by using microfibers and compact machines with a low water consumption.
Large facility companies started to analyze their carbon footprint and requested durable and sustainable products. The market for sustainable cleaning products was born and continues to grow. And with this growth "greenwashing" is increasing.
OrboTech has started to sell a complete cleaning system called OWC (OrboTech Way of Cleaning) to enable environmentally, economically, ergonomically, and efficiency-wise good outcomes for all parties concerned. OrboTech uses the Rekola Motion cleaning trolley as a starting point for the whole system. OrboTech’s OWC is a further development of Rekola’s RFC concept with even more elements working together to produce optimal and efficient results. We at Rekola truly want to change the cleaning industry into something genuinely good for the future.
What appears clean is not always clean. Cleaning companies used to get away with that in the past, but that is no longer possible today. Thanks to the Corona pandemic, cleaning has been put under the magnifying glass and thorough cleaning has now become the standard.
“Cleaning is like Formula 1: everything needs to be in balance”
In cleaning, we often have fixed systems that are included in contracts and schedules. Daily floor cleaning with a dust mop, mopping every other day with a flat mop and deep cleaning of the floors in high-traffic locations once a year. With the right means, materials and training, an excellent cleaning result can be achieved. But there is always room for improvement, says CEO Petri Rekola of Rekola Trolley Systems and spiritual father of the Reflex floor cleaning system. According to him, we can learn a lot from Scandinavia, where they work from an all-encompassing idea in which everything is connected and in balance. Just like in the premier class of motorsport, Formula 1.
Long gone are the days of boiling water, green block soap, bleach and scrubbing boards. But how far has the laundry industry come in 2020. In this paper I focus on cleaning textiles inclusive of but not limited to multiple use surface cloths, floor cloths, mops and dusters.
Van den Brinks is a contract cleaner that operates predominantly in the very centre of The Netherlands (The Veluwe). The company was founded in 1965 and offers the following services: general cleaning, window cleaning, floor maintenance, house clearances and façade cleaning.
In times when cleaning and hygiene seem more important than ever, it is imperative to opt for a robust cleaning system that delivers results time after time. Reflex from Rekola proves that this can also be done in an environmentally friendly and time saving manner. We are now ready for the third generation of this mopping system that proves that residue is a thing of the past.
Coronavirus COVID-19, which is still spreading globally, has been stimulating the discussion on how to stay protected from it. Without belittling the effects of the coronavirus, there is seasonal influenza spreading globally every year and proper hand hygiene should not be forgotten even under normal conditions. In addition, hospital bacteria are a constant problem in Finland and elsewhere. The question for everyone in our industry is what we can do differently so that it would have a positive impact on preventing such pandemics today and in the future. Unfortunately, the quality and processes of cleaning vary greatly from country to country, which means that it is very difficult or even impossible to come up with only one "best practice" solution.
Next month, May 2018, the Interclean show in Amsterdam will take place again, which reminds us that another two years have passed by. This is always a good moment to reflect about the changes our industry has undergone and the new directions we have travelled over the last few years.
On 23 February, Benelux distributor Nordic Cleaning from the Netherlands organized the Rekola Business Partner Day. A personal meeting day for dealers from the Netherlands and Belgium. They discussed cooperation, shared knowledge and talked about innovative market and product developments. "The reactions of the dealers were constructive and positive. How can we better cooperate, communicate and strengthen each other. That is already the noticeable result of this day”, says Jan van Triest, Creative Cleaning Consultant at Nordic Cleaning.
Op 23 februari jl. organiseerde Benelux distributeur Nordic Cleaning uit Nunspeet de Rekola Business Partnerdag. Een persoonlijke onderlinge kennismakingsdag voor de dealers uit Nederland en België. Daarbij werd gebrainstormd over samenwerking, kennis gedeeld en gesproken over innovatieve markt- en productontwikkelingen. “De reacties van de dealers waren constructief en positief. Hoe kunnen we onderling nog beter samenwerken, communiceren en elkaar versterken. Dat is nu al het merkbare resultaat van deze dag”, aldus Jan van Triest, Creative Cleaning Consultant van Nordic Cleaning.
We used the Christmas break to get better understanding of some of the key questions related to the production processes of cleaning.
How much are we aware of the optimal relation between cleaning ingredients like water and chemicals, cleaning tools and machines?
Do we use the right products and concentrations of chemicals, or do we use the right mops, and do we impregnate them at the right moisture? Does this have an impact on the fact that floor mopping takes more energy, even though we clean them every day?
Do we wash the dirty cloths and mops without destroying them in the laundry machine?
ISSA – is a global cleaning organization which has its roots in the USA. Today the organization is not only covering America and Europe but also extending to South America, the Middle East, Australia and Asia. Regardless of global extensions, the organization’s activities are not very well known in the Nordic region.
Microfiber products are already for years used in the professional cleaning industry. Their superior cleaning performance compared with e.g. cotton goes beyond doubt. But even though Microfiber products have been available for decades, their share in the worldwide cleaning industry is still very marginal
Also the knowledge of Microfibers in our cleaning industry is still limited. We talk about Microfiber mops and cloths even without really knowing what their composition is.
