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Cleaning strategies and applications for floor pads, brooms and mops haven't changed much over the years. Brooms, for example, have been used the same way they are today since ancient times. While mops and floor pads don't share a similar extensive history, their basic model hasn't changed in the past half century.

Although these products are effective, easy-to-use and already a staple in the jan/san world, it doesn't mean there is no need to change things up a bit. In fact, the changes some companies have already made don't alter the look or durability of the product at all. That's because the products themselves aren't changing, but rather the materials from which they're made are.

Manufacturers have found that using recycled material, renewable resources and biodegradable substances are a smart way to help improve the environment without compromising the integrity of the product.

Bottles reincarnated

Recycling produces a myriad of benefits, perhaps the most important being freeing up landfill space. It costs less than managing landfills or incinerating garbage and it creates more than 1 million U.S. jobs according to the National Recycling Coalition.

Water and soda bottles are some of the most commonly recycled products, and for good reason. According to O'Dell Corporation, it takes generations for a plastic bottle to break down once it reaches a landfill. But when recycled, bottles that would've taken up space for centuries can be used to create much needed products that are already used worldwide.

When melted down and extruded, plastic bottles can be made into a fiber that is more absorbent and lasts longer than cotton. The O'Dell Corporation and Harper Brushworks, Inc. both use this technology to produce environmentally friendly mops.

End users sometimes object to using Green products because of the perception that they don't work as well as others available on the market. Distributors should inform their customers this is not usually the case.

Jay Heinrich, vice president of marketing and sales at Harper Brush, says mops made from recycled water bottles are 50 percent more absorbent than cotton mops, last twice as long as cotton mops and hold four times its own weight in water. Each Harper Brush Eco-Friendly Mop uses 14 green-colored soda bottles. No harsh dyes are added because the plastic maintains its green color throughout the extruding process.

The O'Dell Corporation uses the same extruding process as Harper Brush to create their EchoMop, and Chip O'Dell, chief operating officer, says that the EchoMop takes less energy to manufacture than traditional polyester mops. "The polyester of the past is made of an oil-based feedstock, which takes more energy. By using plastic bottles from recycling centers, we cut energy consumption significantly," O'Dell says.

According to O'Dell Corporation, replacing 1 million traditional mops with EchoMops would save 830,500 lbs. of bottles from becoming landfill waste. O'Dell Corporation's EchoLine products are beneficial to schools, hospitals and government buildings seeking LEED-EB certification.

Americo also makes all of their floor, hand and utility pads, used in a variety of cleaning applications, primarily from recycled bottles. The process uses 38 12-oz. water bottles or 12 2-liter soda bottles to make the fiber for one case of 20-in. floor pads (five per case).

As with the mops, floor and hand pads made primarily from recycled bottles perform just as well as their non-Green counterparts, if not better.

John Miller, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Americo, explains why: "Polyester is made in a wide variety of grades. Our polyester is made primarily from water and soda bottles so the quality of that polyester is very high. They were initially produced to meet high governmental standards because they're a food-grade product. The fiber maintains those properties even after it is cleaned and extruded, producing a high-grade polyester fiber."

Polycotton fiber blends made from reclaimed cotton and recycled bottles are another smart option. Scraps from textiles can be reused, or reclaimed to make mops for people who desire a cotton-feeling fiber.

Christopher Meaney, vice president of sales and marketing at ABCO, says, "Mop manufacturers have been using reclaimed materials for quite some time because of its practicality, but it's now being recognized as earth-friendly because reclaimed means the material is something that would otherwise be disposed of."

Reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills is certainly something to be proud of. But another way to decrease your ecological footprint is to use natural materials that quickly regenerate themselves.

Renewable resources

In order to be labeled a renewable resource, the supply must replenish itself naturally at a comparable rate or faster than its consumption rate. Jan/san product manufacturers like Harper Brush and O'Dell Corporation have recognized bamboo for its surprisingly quick regeneration time and are now using the plant to make handles.

Bamboo is the largest and fastest growing member of the grass family, and is not a tree at all. Its sturdy, unbreakable structure makes it as reliable as pine or oak wood in a broom or mop handle application. Bamboo grows a third faster than the fastest growing trees, is capable of complete regeneration without replanting, can be harvested every three to five years and is one of the strongest natural materials.

Bamboo possesses environmental benefits as well. A field of bamboo produces up to 35 percent more oxygen than a stand of hardwood trees. Growing bamboo can also help save the rainforests of South America by providing an alternative to Brazilian hardwood trees, which many traditional handles were made of. Saving the rainforests benefits everyone because a significant portion of the world's oxygen originates from these Brazilian forests.

Bamwood handles are made from a combination of reclaimed wood from furniture stores and bamboo plants. "It consists of four strips of bamboo laminated around the outside, and in the middle there's reclaimed hardwood from the furniture industry. Our goal is to make Bamwood handles from 100 percent bamboo in the near future because it regenerates so quickly," says O'Dell.

Patty Adam, marketing director of Harper Brush says their Bamwood handles have been so well-received that they are transitioning more and more of their long wood handles to Bamwood.

Packaging makeover

Not only have brooms, mops and pads recently experienced a makeover, so has the packaging they come in. ABCO has redesigned the packaging for its wet mop line to become more energy-efficient.

ABCO's brik-pak is not a breakthrough product because of how it's made, but rather how it's shipped. This cotton wet-mop is packed neatly into a tiny square that allows for 75 percent more cases to be shipped per pallet. The container saves not only on freight costs, but reduces emissions by fitting more mops onto each truck. The mop inside is also earth-friendly, made of reclaimed cotton from the textile industry.

The jan/san industry has taken the "reduce, reuse, recycle" adage to heart by reusing plastic bottles and cotton from textiles to make mops, brushes and pads. They've also added a fourth R -- renewable -- through the use of Bamwood handles.