For Green Cleaning products this is a very important concept - the true cost of the product - because most people feel that Green Cleaning products are more expensive than traditional products. How do they come to this conclusion? Because of the price they pay for the container of cleaner!
So, let's take a serious look at the cost of Cleaning with traditional products (for this example we will use a $40.00 per case ($10.00/gallon) floor cleaner) with Green Cleaning products (for this example we will use GREENER-CHOICE™ APPROVED GREEN EATOILS™ SUPERFRESH™ ). What are the components of the cost of cleaning? 1) Product, 2) Labor, 3) Supplies, 4) Overhead cost and 5) Cost of disposal of waste cleaning solution.
Let's start with the cost of the Product. Traditional cleaning products usually sell for a low price compared to Green products for the volume of product purchased, however, many Green products cost much less per use as they are typically more concentrated. The traditional floor cleaner is to be diluted at 8 - 12 oz/gallon or $0.9375 per gallon ($10.00 x 12/128) and the bucket is to be filled to 3 gallons = $2.8125 in product cost. Our EATOILS™ SUPERFRESH™ sells for approx. $220.00 per case or $55.00 per gallon. The normal dosage for SUPERFRESH™ is 1 - 2 oz/gallon - so let's err on the side of generosity and say 2 oz./gallon and we'll come up with $0.8594/gallon ($55 x 2/128) or $2.5782 in the bucket. Pretty similar costs, wouldn't you say? Well, let's see what happens.
The cost of Labor per hour is the same for both approaches, however, the time consumed is much different. In the grand scheme of things the cost of labor is the biggest cost of cleaning - not the cost of the product as you'll see in a minute. For the sake of argument, let's assume that the fully loaded rate for our staff cleaner(worker) is $15.00 per hour. Once the worker starts to use the products he/she will see a big difference - both products will go dark as the floor is being cleaned and dirt is being picked up off the floor, however, the Green product will continue to clean long after it goes dark, but the traditional product will stop its cleaning action as soon as the solution goes dark and is neutralized by the contaminants from the floor. The worker will be able to tell you how far he/she can go before the floor needs to be re-done with fresh product as the product will begin to streak the floor. This means that the cleaning solution will need to be dumped out more often for the traditional cleaning product and the total labor cost for the Green product will be substantially less.
In studies that we have conducted in schools and large facilities, the difference is quite staggering. Our studies indicate that EATOILS™ Green cleaning products go at least twice as far as the traditional cleaning products. Working at a 70% efficiency rate we have found that a cleaner will get 1-2 hours or less out of a 1/2 bucket of traditional cleaning products vs 3-4 hours or more for our EATOILS™ products on the same floor surfaces. We have also found (in three recent studies) - that given two identical High School girls' washrooms and the same cleaning staff, a washroom cleaned with SUPERFRESH™ can be maintained with half as many cleanings per day vs traditional cleaning products - and yet remain 'cleaner' throughout the study than the one maintained by traditional cleaning products.
So, getting back to our numbers, the per shift cost of labor is $120.00 (8 hours x 15.00). The worker who uses traditional cleaning product uses more product and more time to empty and refill his/her bucket (twice as often), plus he/she usually does extra steps with traditional cleaning products (mop, rinse, buff, and weekly scrub - or 3-4 times the work).
Next come the Supplies - mopheads, cloths, etc. Traditional cleaning products use harsh chemicals - high or low pH - which attack and destroy mopheads & wash cloths. In addition, the mophead will leave marks on the floor and begin to smell like mold as the traditional chemical cleaner attacks the mophead and mold & mildew work on the contaminants in the bucket and on the mophead. Our research indicates that a typical mophead will last a week in a normal, high use janitorial environment, with traditional cleaners. Using EATOILS™ products, the mophead will last up to 12 weeks. Due to the nature of our EATOILS™ products, the mopheads are not destroyed but constantly cleaned by the microbes in the product so the mophead smells like our product at the end of the day. At $12.00 per mophead per mopping area per cleaning staff member per week this could work out to a lot of money by the end of a year.
Overhead cost is next. What does it cost to keep the lights on for your cleaning staff - power for vacuums, cleaning equipment, etc., and for the water that you are using and pouring down the drain? Not a lot per bucket of cleaning fluid, but it does add up at the end of a year. If your cleaning staff can get the job done in less time and for less total cost would you consider turning off the lights and saving some more money? How about the value of re-directing their work to other cleaning activities?
Cost of disposal of Waste cleaning solution - now here's one nobody thinks about! If you are pouring harsh chemicals and dirty cleaning solution down the drain, what does it cost you? Typical traditional cleaners will attack your drains and pipes and soap scum will build up in the lines. You will probably encounter plumbing problems with slow moving drains and the odd blockage due to these products. If you use EATOILS™ SUPERFRESH™ when you pour the residual cleaning product down the drain, it actually opens the drains and cleans the drainlines!
What makes these products work differently than traditional cleaning products? Traditional cleaning products use solvents, harsh chemicals(high or low pH), VOC's (volatile organic compounds) and killing agents to do the cleaning work. These products are not efficient cleaning products so the finished product is a somewhat clean surface but it requires multiple cleaning steps plus regular maintenance to stay clean. EATOILS™ products use a blend of natural surfactants (that lift the dirt and grime) plus a consortium of beneficial microbes that actually deep clean all surfaces, right down to the pores and cracks to seek out and remove organic materials that tend to build up there. The microbes in the cleaning solution actually destroy and digest the organic materials from the floor in the solution in the bucket. The cleaning solution is continually cleaning the floor every time it is mopped on. In addition, after you have finished cleaning the surface with your mopping action, the microbes continue to deep clean the floor, tile & grout for up to 80 hours - working while you are sleeping to keep your surfaces clean and free of mold, mildew, oils, greases, food, and other contaminants. As a result, you can clean less often yet maintain your facility at its peak cleanliness.
So, back to our original question, let's look at the costs we have captured and quantified - product & labor, (based on the information above we know that the other areas will be less expensive with EATOILS™ products than traditional cleaners, however you'll need to calculate those for your facilities - water, overhead, supplies, etc.) In an 8 hour cleaning shift labour = $120.00 + traditional cleaner (4 x 2.8125) = 11.25 = 131.25 is the cash cost of the traditional cleaning product vs. $120.00 + (2.5782 x 2) = 5.16= $125.16 for the EATOILS™ product.
So what does this all mean?
1) Labor is the biggest cost in cleaning (over 90%) - not the chemical!
2) In an 8 hour shift you will use 1/2 as much EATOILS™ (product value) as you will for traditional cleaning products, therefore the cost of using EATOILS™ products is about 1/2 of the cost of using traditional cleaning products.
3) In an 8 hour shift you will get much more mileage out of EATOILS™ products - clean less often, save time & money. Based on this example, if you can save even 20 minutes on an 8 hour shift by using EATOILS™ products (that's only 4% more efficient) you will save the entire cost of the product - in reality you will save many times the cost of the product - so why not make the switch to green?
4) Regular use of EATOILS™ cleaning products will effectively deal with organic contaminants, mold & mildew, and maintain grout & tile. For more info about EATOILS SUPERFRESH™ click here
Come to our website at http://www.eatoils.com or call us toll free (from anywhere in North America) Monday - Friday 9:00 - 5:00 Eastern Time at 866 621 8244.
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Charles, thanks for this in depth look at the cost of EATOILS vs. Traditional products. I am proud to be a distributor of such a product like this that saves and helps our clients in so many ways, most importantly the ENVIRONMENT. This is another example of "the proof is in the pudding"
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