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December 6, 2002
'Green'
Cleaners Protect Health, Environment, and Budget
Lime
deposits stain the sink and toilet. Soap scum coats the tub tiles.
Black mildew creeps along once-white grout. Bathrooms can be gruesome,
and while harsh chemical cleaners make them easier to clean, they
can also damage the environment, and, potentially, the health
of employees. Twenty-five-year employee Romelle Whalen is one
of many custodians caught in this catch-22 every day. She is thrilled
that Mount Holyoke has recently replaced its traditional chemical
cleaners, which are used by most large institutions and by many
homeowners, with a line of solutions that are nontoxic, noncorrosive,
noncombustible, and nonreactive. "You don't have to move
away from them for a breath of air," said Whalen. "It
feels good not to worry."
Last January, Mount
Holyoke asked Whalen and housekeeper Mary Roco to test four "green"
cleaners in the bathrooms of Torrey and Prospect Halls. The cleaners,
part of Rochester Midland Corporation's Enviro Care line, contain
no hazardous ingredients, glycol ethers, petroleum distillates,
suspected carcinogens, or ozone-depleting compounds. They are
also free of phosphates, which can kill life in rivers, streams,
and oceans by causing "algae blooms."
"We've taken
incremental steps over the ten years I've been here," said
Nancy Fratoni, director of safety and environmental affairs. "But
there's no doubt that going to a green product line was a leap.
I'm so impressed by the speed at which we went from pilot to full
implementation," she said, noting that by October, Enviro
Care cleaners had been introduced into every residence hall on
campus. They will gradually replace traditional chemical cleaners
in all academic buildings.
"Mount Holyoke
is the first college in the area to go with this kind of cleaning
program," said Dave Williams, MHC superintendent of environmental
services. "Many others also want to move in this direction
and are looking at Mount Holyoke to see if they can take this
step, too."
With few or no chemicals,
dyes, or perfumes, Enviro Care cleaners take some getting used
to, say Roco and Whalen, who admit that they initially resisted
them and clung to "the old school of cleaning" by looking
for highly concentrated dark-colored solutions, lots of suds,
and strong perfumes. But both women agree that the adjustment
has been worthwhile. "These products are just as effective
as the old ones and leave a clean smell," says Roco. "We
had feared we'd have to use more elbow grease to get things clean,
but that hasn't been the case," Whalen adds. "I've heard
nothing but positive responses from fellow employees. A big thanks
goes to the College and President Creighton, who has been so supportive
of this change."
"We're not only
green, we're lean," says Robert Proulx, technical manager
for Rochester Midland Corporation (RMC), noting that some of the
Enviro Care cleaners are less expensive than traditional ones.
The all-purpose cleaner now used by MHC, for example, costs eighteen
cents less than the general cleaner it replaced. Each Enviro Care
solution also comes in a sealed, no-spill cartridge, which snaps
into a dispensing system that automatically portions the solution
into a bottle or bucket, accurately and consistently diluting
it with water. With no chance to mismeasure or spill, custodians
use the minimum required amount of solution. Packaging waste is
also minimal, as one half-gallon cartridge of Enviro Care cleaner
makes 512 quarts of cleaning solution.
"Grandmas all
over say that vinegar is the best glass cleaner, so we made our
own vinegar," jokes Proulx. "I feel good about what
we're selling." Proulx says that RMC is the first company
in the world to be certified by Green Seal, an independent nonprofit
organization that identifies products and services that cause
less toxic pollution and waste, conserve resources and habitats,
and minimize global warming and ozone depletion. Green Seal meets
the environmental standards set by the International Organization
for Standardization, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
and the Global Ecolabeling Network.
"This change
is one example of how we're trying to proliferate the notion of
environmental sustainability across all units, academic and institutional,"
said Thomas Millette, director of the Center for Environmental
Literacy. "We're not only teaching sustainability in curricular
aspects but also practicing it in terms of construction projects
and operations. As an institution, we're paying attention to how
we behave and making changes in our actions. Students are not
only living in an environmentally safer place but are seeing that
we've made a conscious decision to reduce phosphates into the
water supply of the surrounding area. All of this is positive."
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