School districts that want to “green clean” their buildings have a whole world of products and equipment designed to clean and make schools healthier.
About 60 North Georgia school building managers and custodians attended a “Green Clean” seminar and heard information some participants said was “amazing.”
“One waterless urinal saves 40,000 gallons of water a year,” said Jim Williams, a custodian at Catoosa County’s Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School. “That’s equal to about 10 tanker trucks of water.”
Product marketers said conservation of resources and reduction of contamination are among the benefits of the products, that range from floor buffers to hands-free towel dispensers.
The seminar, hosted by Catoosa County at Battlefield Primary School in Fort Oglethorpe on Friday, also featured demonstrations of advanced filter vacuum cleaners, no-touch hand soap dispensers, high-tech floor mats and waterless carpet-cleaning equipment.
“About 80 percent of dirt is tracked into a building through the doors,” said Larry Arnold, sales manager for the Anderson Co., of Dalton, Ga. “A high performance mat can literally stop 80 (percent) to 90 percent of that soil coming in.”
Neenah Miller, with Kelsan, a Chattanooga-based distributor of environmentally certified equipment and products, said removing a pound of dirt from a school building costs about $600.
She said items like automated paper and soap dispensers save money as well as protect against the spread of germs.
“You can set the timer so that only so much paper towel comes out at one time,” she said. “I’d rather wash my hands real good and wave them in front of paper towel dispenser that I don’t have to touch.”
Catoosa County Schools environmental services manager Paul Acuff said the school district is steadily turning “green.”
“We have a refurbishment policy,” he said. “We repair and reuse everything we can, but when we have to buy new, we look around for environmentally friendly equipment.”
Mr. Acuff said gradual transition minimizes the cost impact.
“There are statistics that show that ‘cleaning green,’ improves student test scores and improves attendance,” Mr. Acuff said. “Our goal to have the cleanest, safest learning environment for our students. It’s the right thing to do.”
