Hat's off to Housekeeping Solutions and author Kassandra Kania to openly discuss FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS AND DISPOSAL in April's Digital Edition of Housekeeping Solutions!
"Feminine hygiene products typically receive little attention in the industry. Embarrassment and lack of knowledge are often at the center of a male-dominated custodial staff's reluctance to discuss this category."
In regard to the section on Hazards of Handling there are significant problems with the commonly used waxed paper liner bags. OSHA expects the receptacles to be lined to protect the cleaning staff from coming in direct contact with soiled feminine care products. As cited in the article, these liners do not hold their form and discarded waste piles up outside of the bag. Thus, cleaning staff must reach their hands into the receptacle to remove the waste.
Thank you to Darrel Hicks with St Luke's Hospital for discussing an improved specially designed scented poly liner bag that provide housekeeping staff with features and benefits to make removal safe, efficient and hygienic.
www.cleanlink.com/hs/article.asp?id=13000&keywords=restroom,+feminine,+hygiene,+sanitary
Showing posts with label sanitary napkin disposal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sanitary napkin disposal. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, July 26, 2010
Disposable wipes wreck wastewater treatment plants, will cost ratepayers plenty
By KATHY LAMBERT
Mercer Island Reporter Contributor
Aug 04 2009
Most people are busy and need to fit their housework into crowded schedules. It is no surprise that cleaning products are increasingly marketed to consumers eager to get the job done as quickly as possible.
Supermarket shelves are teeming with products that beckon shoppers with the promise of ease and convenience, including a new product that has become wildly popular in the past few years — disposable cleaning wipes.
According to recent reports, North American consumers bought nearly 83,000 tons of disposable wipes in 2004, which is enough to fill about 9,000 semi-truck trailers. MarketResearch.com reports that 60 percent of adults have used household cleaning wipes, and sales are expected to reach the $2 billion mark by 2010.
However, convenience has its price.
While some products boast the added convenience of being flushable and safe for sewers and septic systems, the people who maintain and operate our local and regional wastewater utilities disagree.
King County operates a regional sewer utility that provides wastewater treatment services for 34 local sewer agencies. The local agencies collect wastewater from homes and businesses, and send it to the county’s regional system for treatment.
Sewer utility crews for both the local and regional agencies are increasingly being called out to do battle with large balls of “flushable” cleaning wipes, pads, facial tissues, baby wipes and feminine hygiene products that have become tangled in pumping equipment.
In a worst-case scenario, jammed up pumps can lead to raw sewage overflows into homes, businesses and waterways, which threatens public health and the environment. At best, these problems are making the treatment process more expensive for ratepayers.
The materials that do make it to one of King County’s regional treatment plants have to be screened out, removed and taken to a landfill for disposal, so “flushable” wipes often end up in the garbage anyway. However, using the sewer system to transport trash is a very expensive and inefficient way to get it there, not to mention a waste of resources such as energy and water.
In 2008, King County spent well over $100,000 just to haul and dispose of sewer system trash in a landfill. This does not include the additional operation and maintenance costs of removing these materials and responding to the problems that they cause.
So why are some products labeled “flushable” when they don’t break down in the system? Producers of products are required to provide supportable data for environmental claims related to waste disposal. However, the existing standards for evaluating flushability are limited, according to a 2003 study published by the Water Environment Research Foundation. WERF is America’s leading independent scientific research organization dedicated to wastewater and stormwater issues.
According to WERF, flushability should be the subject of further study. Companies also should consider if and how the products are compatible with wastewater conveyance and treatment systems.
It is important to clarify that King County has not conducted tests on any particular brand or type of disposable or flushable products. Neither does the county discourage people from buying and using cleaning wipes.
King County does urge consumers who choose these products to dispose of them in the trash instead of flushing them down the toilet.
In fact, like most sewer utilities, King County and its customer agencies recommend flushing only bodily waste and toilet paper — that’s it. Everything else should be appropriately put in the trash, composted or recycled. Not only does this protect the local and regional sewer systems, but it can help residents avoid their own pipe clogs and expensive plumbing repairs.
So, in the quest to reduce costs and keep things tidy — from bathroom to baby — please do not flush items that may cause trouble. Please help protect public health, the environment and water quality and put used cleaning wipes, pads, swabs and anything else besides human waste and toilet paper in the trash, not in the toilet.
Kathy Lambert is the King County Councilmember for District 3 and is a member of the Regional Water Quality Committee and the King County Board of Health. Christie True is the division director of King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division.
Mercer Island Reporter Contributor
Aug 04 2009
Most people are busy and need to fit their housework into crowded schedules. It is no surprise that cleaning products are increasingly marketed to consumers eager to get the job done as quickly as possible.
Supermarket shelves are teeming with products that beckon shoppers with the promise of ease and convenience, including a new product that has become wildly popular in the past few years — disposable cleaning wipes.
According to recent reports, North American consumers bought nearly 83,000 tons of disposable wipes in 2004, which is enough to fill about 9,000 semi-truck trailers. MarketResearch.com reports that 60 percent of adults have used household cleaning wipes, and sales are expected to reach the $2 billion mark by 2010.
However, convenience has its price.
While some products boast the added convenience of being flushable and safe for sewers and septic systems, the people who maintain and operate our local and regional wastewater utilities disagree.
King County operates a regional sewer utility that provides wastewater treatment services for 34 local sewer agencies. The local agencies collect wastewater from homes and businesses, and send it to the county’s regional system for treatment.
Sewer utility crews for both the local and regional agencies are increasingly being called out to do battle with large balls of “flushable” cleaning wipes, pads, facial tissues, baby wipes and feminine hygiene products that have become tangled in pumping equipment.
In a worst-case scenario, jammed up pumps can lead to raw sewage overflows into homes, businesses and waterways, which threatens public health and the environment. At best, these problems are making the treatment process more expensive for ratepayers.
The materials that do make it to one of King County’s regional treatment plants have to be screened out, removed and taken to a landfill for disposal, so “flushable” wipes often end up in the garbage anyway. However, using the sewer system to transport trash is a very expensive and inefficient way to get it there, not to mention a waste of resources such as energy and water.
In 2008, King County spent well over $100,000 just to haul and dispose of sewer system trash in a landfill. This does not include the additional operation and maintenance costs of removing these materials and responding to the problems that they cause.
So why are some products labeled “flushable” when they don’t break down in the system? Producers of products are required to provide supportable data for environmental claims related to waste disposal. However, the existing standards for evaluating flushability are limited, according to a 2003 study published by the Water Environment Research Foundation. WERF is America’s leading independent scientific research organization dedicated to wastewater and stormwater issues.
According to WERF, flushability should be the subject of further study. Companies also should consider if and how the products are compatible with wastewater conveyance and treatment systems.
It is important to clarify that King County has not conducted tests on any particular brand or type of disposable or flushable products. Neither does the county discourage people from buying and using cleaning wipes.
King County does urge consumers who choose these products to dispose of them in the trash instead of flushing them down the toilet.
In fact, like most sewer utilities, King County and its customer agencies recommend flushing only bodily waste and toilet paper — that’s it. Everything else should be appropriately put in the trash, composted or recycled. Not only does this protect the local and regional sewer systems, but it can help residents avoid their own pipe clogs and expensive plumbing repairs.
So, in the quest to reduce costs and keep things tidy — from bathroom to baby — please do not flush items that may cause trouble. Please help protect public health, the environment and water quality and put used cleaning wipes, pads, swabs and anything else besides human waste and toilet paper in the trash, not in the toilet.
Kathy Lambert is the King County Councilmember for District 3 and is a member of the Regional Water Quality Committee and the King County Board of Health. Christie True is the division director of King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
#1 building maintenance problem
What's the #1 building maintenance problem? THE RESTROOM!! Whether it is the restroom in a retail store, restaurant, office building, airport or any other facility; the restroom generates more complaints than any other area. With a society sensitive to germs and harmful viruses, the mere appearance and smell of a restroom influences the perception of a facility's healthiness. Dirty restrooms create a negative impression on customers, visitors and employees, and it can cost a business dearly.
(The above statements are from Kaivac Cleaning Systems)
With the beginning of the new year, I promise to continue my efforts in 2010 to get people talking about the disposal of feminine care products in women’s restrooms!! Though it is a problem no one really wants to talk about, we have made significant progress with facility managers, housekeeping staff, building owners, janitorial supply distributors, manufacturers, plumbing contractors and women across the USA who are becoming aware of the problem and taking action. Simple changes with the SCENSIBLES System will benefit the health of building inhabitants, improve the appearance in the restroom and protect our water environment!
(The above statements are from Kaivac Cleaning Systems)
With the beginning of the new year, I promise to continue my efforts in 2010 to get people talking about the disposal of feminine care products in women’s restrooms!! Though it is a problem no one really wants to talk about, we have made significant progress with facility managers, housekeeping staff, building owners, janitorial supply distributors, manufacturers, plumbing contractors and women across the USA who are becoming aware of the problem and taking action. Simple changes with the SCENSIBLES System will benefit the health of building inhabitants, improve the appearance in the restroom and protect our water environment!
Monday, November 09, 2009
THIS IS FROM JEN WITH A JANITORIAL SUPPLY COMPANY IN ONTARIO CANADA
As a woman, I know there is a need for a change because the status quo isn’t sanitary or effective – but it’s the way it’s always been done and no one wants to “rock the boat” and make a change.
Your products are what's needed, but it’s something that men don’t recognize unless they are the ones that actually change those nasty bags in the stalls.
There is so much misinformation about what those receptacles are supposed to do; many facilities will put one bag open in the receptacle and all the ladies that use that stall are supposed to use the same bag all day.
Other facilities put a stack of bags in the receptacle and ladies are supposed to take a bag out, wrap their napkin in it and toss it into the trash. This makes the most sense to me, but I have spoke with custodians that say that some women will stuff their napkin in the receptacle and contaminate all of the bags that are stored in there causing them to waste them to restock. This has the potential to be a huge expense to a business.
I feel that the general public has a lack of education on what the procedure should be for sanitary napkin disposal, and when you couple that with a resistance to change in the community (part of which is a fear of change in this economic climate) it is an uphill battle.
Now that being said, I think one way to educate women is to have some sort of signage that can be mounted with in the stall with the directions, features and benefits to the product.
Your products are what's needed, but it’s something that men don’t recognize unless they are the ones that actually change those nasty bags in the stalls.
There is so much misinformation about what those receptacles are supposed to do; many facilities will put one bag open in the receptacle and all the ladies that use that stall are supposed to use the same bag all day.
Other facilities put a stack of bags in the receptacle and ladies are supposed to take a bag out, wrap their napkin in it and toss it into the trash. This makes the most sense to me, but I have spoke with custodians that say that some women will stuff their napkin in the receptacle and contaminate all of the bags that are stored in there causing them to waste them to restock. This has the potential to be a huge expense to a business.
I feel that the general public has a lack of education on what the procedure should be for sanitary napkin disposal, and when you couple that with a resistance to change in the community (part of which is a fear of change in this economic climate) it is an uphill battle.
Now that being said, I think one way to educate women is to have some sort of signage that can be mounted with in the stall with the directions, features and benefits to the product.
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