Sustainable soap – a new solution to an old problem

The Q3 team at the Alhambra Centre in Barnsley has recently introduced a new, environmentally friendly soap system to the public loos in the shopping centre. The soap solution, called Soap2O is made from biodegradable materials and its unique design eliminates the use of single-use plastics, as well as drastically reducing packaging and waste.

Individual sachets, about the size of a small conventional bar of soap, contain the soap in a powder form. These are dropped into the reservoirs of the dispensers in the washroom and dissolved in water which is readily available from the washroom. The sachets are water soluble and break down as the solution is mixed, leaving only the outer carboard packaging to be recycled. So, there is no waste product, container, or cartridge, as one has come to expect with traditional hand-soap dispensers.

Each dispenser has a capacity of 1,500 shots so there is no pressure on our service teams to constantly replenish them. The soap is dispensed as a hygienic foam with a pomegranate and cranberry fragrance, and we really think they will be a hit with the shopping centre visitors.

Sustainability is an important part of Q3’s approach to its cleaning service and we are always keen to explore innovative alternatives that help reduce our carbon footprint and remove toxic chemicals and waste from our operations. Apart from the obvious advantages of this soap system, there are also additional benefits from shipping product in concentrate, in the form of reduced transportation cost and less storage space, which both contribute to a reduction in CO2 emissions.

Alex Gavrilovic explains how Covid19 changed our approach to cleaning

Cleaning used to be straightforward in office and retail environments. Companies cleaned surfaces using whatever products they thought were effective and cheap, and then used visual, subjective, methods of assessing what was clean. There was never a demand, or even an expectation to go beyond that.

Then, in response to growing environmental awareness and a desire for more sustainable, less dangerous chemicals, alternative products started to appear. Non-toxic, less harmful and with a neutral pH, these products solved one challenge, whilst not really addressing the question of whether these products actually worked, because quality and effectiveness were still being assessed subjectively.

Covid19 fundamentally changed this overnight, because cleaning became more about creating confidence for clients and reassurance for employees. Areas had to be technically, certifiably clean, not just visually clean.

At the start of the pandemic, a flurry of new “fogging” products emerged together with cleaning products claiming to counteract Covid and maintain surfaces Covid-free for periods of up to ninety days. Sadly, we found many of these claims were spurious. Q3 embarked on a programme to establish which of these new chemicals were working and which weren’t. To be sure, we test-trialled and measured their effectiveness using onsite ATP (adenosine triphosphate) device swab tests, to determine the subsequent bacteria count, post-clean. We then compared this against benchmarks for other environments to ensure the cleanliness meets safe acceptable standards for offices, washrooms, catering areas etc. From this, we were able to select the best-in-class chemical that could be used for all daily floor and surface cleaning.

Our cleaners now check and record the ATP count after each clean.

If you want to understand the efficacy of anti-bacterial cleaning products, you can’t do it by reading the label – you need to measure it and have the data evidence to back it up.

Extract from an article originally published by PfM Magazine in May 2022