Green Cleaning Best Practices

Patrick Pizzo, administrator for operations, elaborates on how the East Meadow Union Free School District in New York undertakes the difficult job of cleaning locker rooms with green cleaning methods:

• The staff uses a hydrogen peroxide-based product called H2 Orange Envirox 117 to clean and sanitize the locker rooms on a daily basis. “The best way to maintain a locker room is to keep it clean and keep the germ load down with peroxide-based cleaners, like an anti-septic,” he says.
• Ionized water, which is essentially charged tap water, is used on the mirrors. “It doesn’t sound like it works but it does,” Pizzo says. “That is the best glass cleaner that there is.”
• Periodically a fogger is used to disinfect the locker room, killing any existing germs and coating the surface to continue to disinfect for another 24 hours. This is done about once a month under normal circumstances, but it is done more frequently when necessary. Pizzo prefers Pure Green 24.
• If the aforementioned efforts are not enough to rid a locker room of odor, East Meadow also uses a parsley-based cleaner to counter the smells. When that isn’t up to the task, a natural deodorizing product called Fresh Wave is deployed. The district uses Fresh Wave in a spray and gel form, depending on the need, and then increases the volume when necessary. The gel can be placed in a container and then hidden in the locker room, but Pizzo says he limits its use to ensure staffers are making every effort to address the source instead of just masking the odor. The locker rooms are also steam cleaned every summer.
• Pizzo’s green solutions for the more detailed jobs? His staff uses Soy Shine on stainless steel, Grout Smart on the grout and A-Ben-A-Que or Magic Erasers to remove marks.

Pizzo, who leads the district’s facilities department, speaks regularly on the benefits of green cleaning. He is also an instructor for the School Facilities Management Program at Hofstra University School of Continuing Education.