Servitech Training Ltd. Cleanliness, health and safety are not the sole responsibility of custodians By Brent Bourne, Servitech Training Ltd.
Everyone who uses the school building – including the students, teachers, administrators, the union and outside contractors – must play a role in maintaining a healthy environment. Schools facility maintenance officials’ experiences implementing green cleaning programs throughout Canada show that promoting stewardship and increasing institutional commitment are critical to both short- and long-term success of the custodial department. While modern, efficient equipment plays a critical role in accomplishing the mandate set by the school district managers, the critical component is the dedication and skills of the staff. To maintain this level of daily personal motivation 58
Ops Talk • Fall 2013
requires great supervision skills, regular meaningful training, and recognition of services provided. The science of dirt removal is a new one; we learn continually what actually works and what does not. Several ideas have worked in the lab but failed when subjected to the rigours of the daily grind, or have proved redundant or environmentally hazardous as technology moves forward. Examples of this factual process of change are many: • Burnishing floor finishes that powders and releases micron-sized particles of plastic into the air being replaced by new flooring that needs no sacrificial wear-coating to be burnished on a routine basis. • Two- or three-part epoxy-type floor coatings or coatings that are “cooked” by UV light. • Battery back-pack vacs that cut the time spent handling cords, and bend and stretch muscle and joint damage. • The process of using microfibre materials for daily damp or wet soil removal by a combination of friction and mini-micron-sized dirt removal, which replaces many potentially hazardous chemical combinations.
• The controversy over using “ionized water” to clean rather than using a “chemical” surfactant to release the dirt. Some swear by this process, some swear at it. What it does prove is the fact that TACT (Time, Agitation, Chemical Process, and Temperature) remains part of the science of cleaning. Try cleaning your hallways with a good auto-scrubber and a soft brush, making sure to remove all the loose dry dirt first. and look at the results that just water and agitation and wet dirt removal can accomplish. Yes, we still need good, safe chemistry to help solubilise and remove various types of dirt, but the day of relying on “juice” to accomplish cleaning should be drawing to a close. People clean – not chemicals or equipment. People are your greatest resource and headache. One firm has developed a cleaning system that supersedes mop and bucket methods. According to research done by Dr. Jay Glasel, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Microbial, Molecular and Structural Biology at the University of Connecticut Medical/Dental School, the company has proven by scientific experiment and data that it works sig-
