Back it the day, large corporations were the only businesses that recycle. Smaller operations couldn’t afford the costs associated with purchasing bins and extra hauling fees.
Luckily, times have changed. Recycling is now part of the business culture in most companies, even small ones. Many cities require paper and glass recycling and where they don’t, corporate landlords use trash services that include recycling and encourage (or even require) cooperation from tenants.
Most of us have recycled paper at work and school and many large towns and cities provide recycling bins for regular pickups just like trash. Still, the national average recycling rate is only about 35%. We can do better. Here are 8 ways to recycle you can easily do at home and even when you’re away.
Chemical eye injury is a relatively rare worksite injury thanks to protective eye gear and face shields that are standard issue in labs and many industrial job sites. Still, most injuries from chemical burn in the eye happen at work where there are eye wash stations and other first aid equipment nearby.
But what if it happens at home, where cleaning solutions, bug spray, cosmetics, and other products laden with chemicals are lurking, and where eyegear isn’t available or used? Here are tips on treating so-called “acid eye.”
Many industries are required to have oil spillage prevention procedures in place as well as oil spill contingency plans. While prevention is everyone’s goal–certainly no one benefits from oil spills–the natural disasters, equipment failure, and human error make it likely that one can happen.
Oil spill control is no doubt on the minds of everyone who works on off-shore rigs, pipelines, refineries, and small businesses like service stations and fleet operations. As a manufacturer of natural products used to contain and clean liquid spills, we want to share our knowledge about spill response planning with businesses that produce, transport, store, and use oil and subsidiary products.
Just about every workplace has a chemical spill risk; some are just higher than the others.
Job sites like auto repair facilities, oil refineries, and a range of manufacturers have an obvious need for a chemical spill response and cleanup procedure. But consider that even low-risk sites like offices need a chemical spill cleanup plan when, for example, coolant leaks out from air conditioning, or a delivery truck gushes gasoline, or oil in the parking lot.
In our opinion, any workplace where a chemical spill is possible, needs an emergency response plan, particularly if a spilled liquid has flammable properties or poses a health risk from inhaling fumes or through skin contact.
When people assure us that there their worksite is safe from chemical spills, we’re tempted to ask them how old their smartphone batteries are. Sometimes we do.
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Slip and fall injury was responsible for 1.1 million days away from work in 2017, with the majority of cases occurring in the private workforce. On a grimmer note, they are the second-leading cause of death among elderly persons.
Part of this is because there rarely is anything alleviate the impact of a slip and fall; few people fall on a soft surface or happen to be wearing a restraint. The key is to prevent a fall injury in the first place.
Slippery surfaces, like wet or greasy floors, practically invite back injuries, especially back injury caused by falling backwards.
Researchers have found that slipping interrupts a person’s center of gravity (COG), as opposed to stumbling and recovering balance. Some people, particularly older ones, will fall backward when their COG is thrown off-balance. If the faller lands on the buttocks, there will probably just be soreness, but falling on a bony part like the back can result in a devastating injury. (more…)
So, you just put in a new concrete floor for your home or commercial garage and, of course, one of your vehicles promptly leaked oil (or an oily fluid).
Or maybe you have an older floor with cracks that seem to attract oil spills and carry them further away from the spill site.
Being a smart person, you Googled something like “how to clean oil off concrete garage floor” and this article came up. Good choice, because now you’ll know that there are actually a few ways to quickly and easily clean oil off concrete floors, driveways, and private roads.
Like any spill, it’s best to clean up spills on concrete floors sooner rather than later. The longer a liquid, particularly oil or other automotive fluid, sits on the concrete the more likely it will get absorbed into the concrete surface and leave a stain.
If the spill is small and contained, a good amount of elbow grease (pardon the bad pun), a strong liquid anti-grease detergent, and a stiff brush will probably clean it off.
Be sure the detergent you used doesn’t have triclosan, an antibacterial agent used in lots of soaps and personal care products. The Food and Drug Administration banned it from most hand and body soaps in 2017, but dish soap and detergents obviously come in contact with hands — and you’ll be scrubbing for at least several minutes.
Cleaning up oil spills in the garage can be challenging on older, cracked floors that disperse oil spills. This means literally chasing after fluids and more scrubbing.
Or, you can use an oil and grease absorbent like SpillFix and not have to touch anything other than a broom to push it around and over the stain, and a dustpan to collect it when you’re finished. SpillFix absorbs liquids and oils quickly and effectively. Once it touches a spill, it isn’t going anywhere.
Finally, SpillFix is a huge time-saver. There are no hours-long waiting periods for SpillFix to activate. It starts absorbing the spill right away and completes the job in just minutes, without leaving any wet, slippery, or residual hazard that other traditional cleaners and absorbents leave behind.
Many people turn to a concrete cleaner or degreasing agent for larger oil spills on concrete floors and apply them with a stiff brush. Be aware that some of these products contain chemicals that can be harmful if inhaled or comes in contact with the skin and should be used in well-ventilated areas. This usually isn’t a problem — garages have big doors — but most people want to keep those doors closed in cold, rainy, snowy, or windy weather, and of course at night.
In addition, some of these products seem to work best when power-washing with hot water after containing the spill. That adds to the cost of water and heating, not to mention keeping a power-washer on hand and the effort to use it. All this will, conservatively, take at least a half-hour when you consider you also have to dry the cleaned floor.
There are poultices that break down oil and grease and leave behind a compound that absorbs the muck. This sounds like a lot of hard, time-consuming work on hands and knees, doesn’t it?
Then there are clay-based absorbents like kitty litter, which can take hours to dry before they can be cleaned up. They almost always leave behind stains, even when applied right after the spill. It’s just the nature of clay. Clay absorbents also have silica dust — a known carcinogen — that’s absent in SpillFix.
Or again, you can use SpillFix in the same way described above: apply around the spill and then directly on it. Wait a few minutes and start pushing SpillFix around with a broom. This ensures it soaks up whatever liquid is spilled, including oil and automotive fluids, with or without water mixed in, and leaves behind a clean, dry floor with no slippery residue. In addition to being a faster solution than clay absorbents, SpillFix absorbs 40% more liquid and is nontoxic.
If you didn’t get to the spill soon enough to prevent a stain, try spraying something like SimpleGreen — a non-toxic cleaning product — on the stain after you’ve soaked up the oil with SpillFix. After the cleaning agent has had time to work, use SpillFix to soak up the residue. This is how one of our customers was able to remove stains on a concrete floor in his paint store after cleaning up a paint spill with SpillFix.
Unlike most degreasers and industrial cleaners, SpillFix is 100% organic and safe to use anywhere. It’s listed for organic use with OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) and certified by NSF, the National Sanitation Foundation, as safe to use around food production and food handling activities. It does not emit fumes or require gloves, although we do recommend safety gloves when you’re sweeping SpillFix into a dustbin to protect your hands.
Because it’s dust-free, SpillFix won’t make anyone sneeze, either!
Of course, you prefer to use a sustainable product, particularly when it performs better, faster, and with less effort than competing products.
SpillFix is one of the most sustainable absorbents you’ll find. It’s made from coconut husks — once considered a waste product — and nothing else. There are no additives, preservatives, or chemicals in the product.
Because SpillFix is derived from coconut husks, much of the pre-manufacture prep work (farming, husking) is done locally. Coconuts do not need fertilizer to grow, just the rain that falls in the tropics where they grow. The husks themselves have created a new supply chain, creating new jobs in the community, which also has fewer waste products to deal with.
On the user side, SpillFix produces much less waste than clay absorbents because you won’t need as much of it to clean up spills. A handful of SpillFix can do as much spill clean up as a 25-pound bag of kitty litter, so customers need less of it. This means savings from fewer orders, less gasoline used for fewer deliveries, and less storage needed. And there’s just a little less paperwork on the purchasing side of the business.
Did someone out too much SpillFix on a stain? Just put it back in the bag — it can be reused. (We also sell a refillable bucket.)
SpillFix reduces waste by 66% compared to clay absorbents. Moreover, it can be safely dispensed. As one of our customers noted, it didn’t catch fire like other cleaning products!
SpillFix is an organic and sustainable product, which pleases a lot of business owners and probably many employees as well. Employees who use SpillFix will also find it’s less stressful to use. Here’s why:
Try a sample of SpillFix and see it perform for yourself. Contact us for more information today!
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (March 9, 2017) — Brady (NYSE:BRC), a global leader in industrial and safety printing systems and solutions, today announced the release of its new SpillFix® Granular Absorbents, endorsed by Brady SPC. This new absorbent product is 100% natural, safe, lightweight and easily deployed for effective spill absorption, even for hard to contain liquids such as oils and hydrocarbons. (more…)
The author of “Gadget Nation”, Steve Greenberg appeared on local TV news to show us some cool gifts to consider for upcoming events such as Father’s Day or Graduation presents. Items he showed us included Lyric, Fizzics and SpillFix All Purpose Absorbent. (more…)
Washington – OSHA has released its final rule on protecting workers from exposure to silica, marking the agency’s first updated regulation for the material since 1971. (more…)