Whether you love them (I do) or hate them a display at a local shop to where I live in the run up to Christmas prompted a train of thought about the approach to sustainability by a great many people and organisations and how blinkered it is.
Specifically within the cleaning industry sustainability tends to focus on carbon neutrality, chemicals and waste management.
The example being used might not seem related, although there are some striking similarities as you will see.
You might not know that the author was brought up in the country where his parents owned an organic smallholding where they grew vegetables, had chickens, house cows, beef cattle, bred pigs, an experience that qualifies him to make the comparisons he does.
The animals were free range and the manure from them was used to fertilise the soil. Incidentally, the best sprouts that they ever had were grown in the pig paddocks and the taste was enhanced by the natural fertilisers.
The thing is what is trendy compared to what is practical and the pictures of Brussels sprouts demonstrate it perfectly.
In the first picture is simply a tray of sprouts that have been picked from the stalks by farm workers who pick only the sprouts that are ready for the table, the remaining sprouts will continue to grow and be picked later in the season.
From a practical point of view loose sprouts are easier to prepare for cooking.
In addition the trays are filled almost to the top with sprouts and the trays loaded onto vehicles to transport.
The stalks that remain in the fields continue to grow and the remaining sprouts are harvested as the season progresses.
At the end of the season the sprout tops are harvested as an alternative delight to spring greens and the stalks along with the roots (which will be anyway) are cultivated back into the soil to replenish it. On the authors farm they used to leave that to the pigs who enjoyed stripping the foliage and chewing the stalks.
The only waste in this method of harvesting is the peelings of the sprouts when they are prepared for cooking, which in the authors household go into a wormery or compost bin to fertilise their garden.
Alternatively they could be segregated into a food waste stream which although adding to the waste processing burden and the carbon production of transport and final disposal is the only option that most people have.
The second picture shows Brussels sprouts on stalks, and let's be clear about this, it is a marketing ploy to get people who wouldn't normally buy sprouts to buy them.
We are led to believe that buying sprouts on stalks means that they are fresher and contain more nutrients which is a fallacy because once the stalks are cut, there are very few nutrients flowing to the sprouts.
It is more likely that the reverse will happen, particularly when the foliage at the top draws them into those leaves, as soon as the stalks are cut, they start to decay and so do the sprouts.
Starting with the practicalities of preparing them, first you have to pick the sprouts off the stalk - a job already done for you with loose sprouts - it isn't easy and can be a nail breaker for people with long finger nails.
Now you're at the point you would have been if you'd bought loose sprouts but you're left with the stalk, a few tiny and probably unusable sprouts and the sprout tops/leaves.
If you're a soup maker, you might use the tiny sprouts and the leaves to make soup with, otherwise you now have the stalk, remaining sprouts and the leaves to dispose of.
For the more environmentally conscious of us who are able, we might put the stalk, sprouts and leaves into a composter or wormery, alternatively they become food waste or general waste and this is where they become nonviable.
Because when they are added to the waste management process, there is a whole machine that starts to take over no matter whether your waste Brussel Sprout stalk, sprouts and leaves have been streamed into food waste or are just part of the general waste stream.
From the point that you put your waste out for collection, the machine is started. A waste truck manned by a team of operatives collects domestic waste, or a truck with a bulk loader collects it where there are bulk or commercial bins. Whatever the method of collection, there will be a truck mounted compactor that squashes the waste collected into the back of the truck.
In most cases a diesel -powered truck churning out exhaust fumes that include carbon monoxide (the poisonous one) carbon dioxide (not poisonous) nitric oxides, sulphur dioxide, hydrocarbons, formaldehyde, transition metals and carbon particles that are more polluting than petrol.
In addition to other hydrocarbon fuels (petrol and gasses) diesel produces water vapour, for every litre of hydrocarbon fuel burnt (the ignition part of the engine power cycle), one and a half litres of water is created.
Whatever the hydrocarbon fuel source is, the exhaust gasses include very large quantities of carbon, carbon that is released into the atmosphere.
Once the waste is collected and transported to a waste processing plant, a materials recovery facility (MRF, pronounced Murph). A MRF is where truckloads of waste are taken to for sorting into the different waste streams that include general waste for incineration/landfill, recycling and reprocessing.
Most food waste that goes into a MRF is treated as general waste and goes for incineration, more often called waste-to-energy, a process that is fuelled by more hydrocarbons and when combined with the incinerated waste materials creates even more carbon to be released into the atmosphere.
No matter what the fuel source is, carbon or not, the very process of (incinerating) burning the material releases carbon into the atmosphere, along with by-products of the incineration process of burning multiple materials including plastics (not all plastic is recyclable) cloths, metals (again not all metals can be separated for recycling), vegetable matter (fruit, vegetables, wood, garden waste), they all emit gasses and particulates into the atmosphere, even when incinerated at very high temperatures with exhaust filtering.
Although the price per pound/kilogramme for the actual sprouts is roughly the same, the convenience of loose sprouts and the reduced environmental impact really should out way the trendy alternative of sprouts on stalks.
So what has this to do with the cleaning industry?
Or, what hasn't it got to do with the cleaning industry because there are so many examples of built in inefficiency, elongated processes, or unsustainable practices that cost time, money and impact on the environment.
One of those is hand washing soap where the alternatives in simple terms are some form of liquid soap, or powdered soap.
Liquid soaps themselves come in a variety of forms including bulk liquid soap and foam soap in five litre plastic containers, soaps/foam soaps in disposable plastic cartridges and sachets and single use/ready to use (RTU) liquid soaps/foam soaps in disposable plastic dispensers, all containing large quantities of water and all in plastic containers, in most cases with plastic packaging.
Powdered soaps tend to come in premeasured PVA sachets or paper sachets, which are mixed with water to deliver a measured quantity of soap, most often foam soap.
Every litre of soap liquid (soap or foaming soap) weighs at least one kilogramme - five kilogrammes for each five-litre container, or roughly 570 kilogrammes for a pallet load.
The equivalent powdered soap to five litres of liquid soap weighs around 160 grammes, or 18 kilogrammes for one case which is enough to make up the equivalent of a pallet of liquid soap.
Then there are the empty plastic cartridges/sachets, 28 cardboard cases and the pallet itself that have to be disposed of or recycled, compared to one cardboard case and card packages.
When consideration is given to the secondary impact of waste management, recycling, disposal and transport with each stage producing huge volumes of carbon to be added to the atmosphere, conventional supply leaves a lot to be desired.
The moral of this post is, rather than following a popular or easy trend sold to you by your supplier to improve their turnover or profit at your expense, consider what you do to refuse/prevent waste becoming something you have to manage before it is left on your premises to be your problem.
Like with the differences with the Brussel sprouts, the benefits of a technical approach is how both economies, improved sustainability and reduced impact on the environment apply.
Here at Soft Service Solutions Ltd we look at the bigger picture to identify what is best for you, your company and your staff. We believe it is the best way to approach operational delivery that will benefit your organisation and the environment.
For sustainability to work, it has to cost less in the long term and it does when operational practices and processes are combined with modern technologies.
Use the following section so to get support with your Soft Facility Service delivery and reduce your impact on the environment.
