Cleaning with natural confidence

Demand and scientific advances lead to a new era as health and climate concerns are top of agenda

The issues driving forward our cleaning story all come down to health: guaranteeing the wellbeing and confidence of both guests and staff, plus a determination to achieve improvements which add no extra damage to our planet.

For example, BioVate Hygienics launched with the aim of becoming the UK’s best sustainable and carbon neutral cleaning product brand. The company has been co-founded by experienced environmental entrepreneur Nick Winstone with a vision to to deliver the next generation of biological cleaning products, with the lowest environmental impact packaging. Based in Towcester, Northants, BioVate hopes to change the way Britain cleans.

This includes ensuring core products use 100 per cent natural biological and plant-based liquids and working towards completely carbon neutral products. Since its launch at the Manchester Cleaning Show, BioVate is poised for a successful first year of trading with more than £3 million in sales. It will focus on providing a service to housekeeping, hospitality, care and general cleaning sectors.

Co-founder and sales director Alison Minter says: “It’s important that we start by placing the end user cleaner, the housekeeper or kitchen porter, at the centre of our offering and we have created an industry leading, sustainable user experience for our distribution partners and their customers.”

One of the UK’s longest established manufacturers and suppliers of quality cleaning and hygiene products has officially launched the edencleen range. Fourth generation family-owned Cleenol Group has created edencleen and says the range covers essential needs for a great deal of daily cleaning requirements, including a washroom cleaner, toilet gel cleaner, urinal deodoriser, an all-purpose surface sanitiser, a degreaser, washing up liquid, a no rinse floor degreaser, window cleaner, laundry detergent and fabric softener. Sam Greaves, MD and owner of Cleenol, says: “Cleenol has always produced products that offer a perfect balance between cleaning performance and efficiency with attention to reducing the environmental impact that our products may carry. Now edencleen has been designed to reflect in part our vision for a cleaner, safer world that touches not only the environmental aspects of sustainability, but also has an aim and social ambition to leave the planet in the safe care of future generations.”

The edencleen products have been developed around stringent principles and ingredients including RSPO (The Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil) certified palm oil derivatives, no animal derived products, cruelty-free and minimal petrochemical derived ingredients.

The products are also VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) free and phosphate free, with recyclable / recycled packaging. The 100 per cent bio-based surfactant has been made by using bio-based ethylene oxide manufactured from biomass ethanol, Bioethanol, naturally derived acids, sugar-based surfactants, bio-based solvents and low impact preservatives.

Combining carefully formulated products with appropriate packaging, and by using recycled material or recyclable componentry, the range’s mostly colourless liquid and low fragrance usage are designed to convey transparency and the straightforwardness of Cleenol’s approach. This will be a hallmark of all edencleen products.

Careful use of enzymatic formulations – and more traditional chemistry – brings a portfolio of products that is finely attuned to delivering effective cleaning which, when used as instructed, helps maintain a neutral environmental impact.

Hotels and hospitality venues understand that protecting guests and staff from infections is critical to their business and its reputation. Surface disinfection is, together with hand hygiene, essential to breaking the chain of infection. It eliminates viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens from surfaces that guests and staff might touch.

Diversey offers a complete range of surface disinfectants including formulations that enable new ways of working with enhanced results to complement or replace traditional products and processes.

Oxivir Plus is a powerful and fast-acting cleaner-disinfectant for routine and daily tasks. It is ideal for frequent-touch surfaces and objects which should be cleaned and disinfected regularly during the day to reduce the risk of spreading infections. The active ingredient in Oxivir Plus is AHP (Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide), a patented blend of low levels of hydrogen peroxide and commonly used, safe ingredients. This combination dramatically increases the disinfection potency and cleaning performance.

Oxivir Plus offers what is known as broad-spectrum protection. This means it is highly effective against a wide range of viruses, spores, yeasts, and fungi, including C. diff, MRSA, Norovirus, E. coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It has been tested to numerous EN standards and kills all viruses in just 30 seconds.

As a cleaner-disinfectant, Oxivir Plus is effective in ‘dirty conditions’ and can be used in a single-step process. There’s no need to clean surfaces before the product is applied. Nor do you need to rinse non-food-contact surfaces after use. This makes cleaning and disinfection tasks simpler and faster than using many traditional products.

Oxivir Plus is safer and more sustainable because AHP degrades to oxygen and water alone shortly after use. It is safe to use with no hazard warnings and contains no respiratory irritants. It is non-corrosive and can be used on most surfaces including stainless steel, chrome, vinyl, nylon fabrics, laminated surfaces, glass, rubber, and hard and flexible plastics. It is also Woolsafe certified and can be used on most fabrics. Oxivir Plus is available in a ready-to-use version and as a highly sustainable ultra-concentrate with Diversey’s dosing and dilution systems.

Degragerm 24 Shield provides hotels with a new way to stop the spread of infections, including Covid 19, by enabling ongoing surface disinfection for up to 24 hours. This ready-to-use product meets numerous disinfection standards and is ideal for frequent touch surfaces. Using the product on surfaces twice a day instead of traditional surface disinfectants every couple of hours can save costs and give housekeepers more time to focus on other tasks guests appreciate.

Surfaces such as light switches, door handles, lift buttons and vending machines must be disinfected frequently throughout the day to maintain maximum protection. But this can be difficult with traditional disinfectants because, no matter how good or often they are used, they can only destroy what is already there and surfaces can be contaminated again straight away.

Degragerm 24 Shield incorporates patented APT – advanced polymer technology – with powerful built-in disinfectants. In addition to working as a traditional cleaner disinfectant, it dries to form a thin and almost invisible film that releases disinfectant when touched to deliver ongoing protection for up to 24 hours.

The product meets a wide range of additional disinfection standards including EN1276 (bactericidal), EN1650 (yeasticidal), and EN13697 (bactericidal/yeasticidal), and EN16777 and EN14476 (enveloped viruses). All these tests are passed in dirty conditions which means the product can be used as a cleaner-disinfectant so there is no need to clean the surface before it is applied.

Diversey’s Room Care Pur-Eco range for hotels includes products with EU Ecolabel certification covering all daily cleaning tasks. The range comprises formulations for daily cleaning that are at least as effective in terms of performance and fragrance as the standard Room Care range used by many large UK and global hotel groups.

Improved sustainability and lower cost in use are key benefits of the range. Replacing ready-to-use product with ultra-concentrate pouches in Diversey’s DQFM or Divermite dilution control systems, where water is added at the point of use rather than the place of manufacture, enables hotels to reduce plastic usage by more than one kilogramme per room and greenhouse gas emissions by over 90 per cent.

One case of Room Care R1 Plus Pur-Eco, for example, can produce the equivalent of 200 ready-to-use trigger bottles. This also reduces overall costs and minimises storage, transport, and handling burdens. Dilution control ensures solutions are prepared accurately and consistently to cut wastage. This helps ensure cleaning is completed correctly first time, with no need for time-consuming and expensive repeats.

Odour plays a significant role in perceptions of cleanliness and the Room Care range meets this challenge, with the latest-generation fragrances allowing hotels to personalise their guests’ experience.

Studies conducted by Diversey with leading hotel groups suggest Room Care Pur Eco ultra-concentrates used with standard housekeeping tools can reduce the time spent cleaning a room by one minute in a budget hotel and up to five minutes in a luxury hotel. Team members can clean more rooms each day – up to eight hours are saved for every 100 rooms cleaned. Housekeepers can use this to focus on the additional detail cleaning that is appreciated by guests.

When it comes to keeping guest rooms, offices, corridors, and public areas clean, ensuring the best equipment is used for the job is essential to support the work of housekeepers. High standard battery powered equipment can allow for a more effective clean that reduces the amount of time spent cleaning. It negates the need to find plug sockets to power the machines, also reducing the risk of tripping over loose cables.

The BVL 5/1 Bp Pack from Kärcher won the innovation award at Interclean 2022. The ultra-light, battery powered backpack vacuum pack is made from innovative, extremely robust expanded polypropylene material that is water resistant and recyclable. The machine weighs less than 5kg, enabling housekeepers to wear it on their back for effective cleaning on the go. The lightweight design and ergonomic carrying frame make it easier to clean for longer periods without struggling, ensuring cleaning is done safely.

Users can tackle dirt wherever it may be. Additional nozzles that come with the pack allow housekeepers to get into crevices to lift dirt. The BVL 5/1 Bp Pack is controlled using a user-friendly control panel on a waist strap which helps to take some of the weight off of the shoulders of the user, for even distribution to reduce the risk of back ache over long periods of use. Featuring Kärcher’s eco!efficiency mode, the battery life can be extended by lowering the power consumption. This helps to reduce noise output, ideal for cleaning in close proximity to guests. Powered by a 36V battery, the BVL 5/1 Bp is compatible with other products within Karcher’s Battery Universe platform, enabling users to swiftly move between machines depending on the task at hand.

Kärcher UK has also launched its newest steam cleaner, the SG 4/2. The compact and easy to use steam cleaner features a water tank, steam generator and storage space for accessories, housed in an all-in-one box design. Its practical casing ensures it is a flexible solution for use in different locations, for instance to clean kitchens or toilet facilities, counters and displays.

The easy-to-transport, shock-resistant case, weighs just 7.5 kilograms and features extra storage space for accessories, ensuring the SG 4/2 Classic is ready-to-go when it is needed. The intuitively designed control panel makes the steam cleaner easy to use, with 4-bar steam pressure available within just three minutes. The built-in VapoHydro function supports those looking to move towards detergent-free cleaning as it flushes stubborn dirt away with hot water for efficient results. The SG 4/2 comes with a built-in tank that holds two litres of water. One and a half litres of fresh water are fed to the half-litre capacity boiler via a pump, as needed. In just a few simple steps – and without having to wait for the boiler to cool down – the freshwater tank can be refilled for uninterrupted cleaning.

The steam cleaner case has a convenient carrying handle and there are also castors on the base of the machine, making it easier to move between locations. Two storage nets on the outer sides of the case are ideal for storing the power cable and any wetcleaning equipment after use.

Accessories include a steam scraper and flat brush, as well as other tools, such as a point jet nozzle or hand nozzle and a microfibre cleaning cloth. The attachments can be used to clean hard-wearing surfaces such as tiles or steel, as well as delicate materials such as ceramic or glass.