Are Your Floors Ready for Winter?

Are Your Floors Ready for Winter?

Winter weather is fast approaching, and one of the best defenses against the season’s challenges is the placement of mats. Mats help stop snow, salt, dirt, and debris from being tracked through your facility, keeping your floors cleaner and reducing the risk of slips and falls. However, to maximize their effectiveness, it’s essential to maintain your mats throughout the season.

Impact of Ice Melt on Finished Floors

Ice melt products, while helpful in preventing icy conditions, can be harmful to finished floors. The residue from ice melt can leave behind white, chalky stains, dulling finishes and sometimes even causing surface damage. This makes it essential to have high-quality mats in place, and to keep them clean, to catch as much ice melt residue as possible. Facilities should ensure they have enough matting at entrances, ideally 15-20 feet in length, to capture debris from multiple footfalls before individuals reach the main flooring area.

Combatting Ice Melt Stains and Scuffs

To reduce winter damage, facilities can adopt a floor care strategy that addresses both high-traffic areas and entryways.

Set a Regular Cleaning Schedule: Frequent sweeping and mopping are essential, particularly during and after major snow days. Regular upkeep prevents ice melt, dirt, and salt from embedding in floors.

Immediate Entryway Care on Snow Days: Remove mats temporarily from entryways if ice melt residue has built up under or around them. This allows for direct cleaning of the floor beneath, minimizing damage. Sweep away any debris, large ice chunks, or salt particles left by foot traffic.

Apply Buckeye Floor Cleaner: Select a cleaner from Buckeye's lineup that is designed for winter floor maintenance. For an eco-friendlier option, Buckeye offers two Eco Floor Cleaners. Buckeye Eco® Floor Cleaner Fragrance-Free E32 S32 and Buckeye Eco® Floor Cleaner E33 both provide a greener solution without compromising the effectiveness of the floor cleaner. Use the cleaner to restore shine, remove scuffs, and prevent buildup on finished floors.

Rinse Thoroughly: After mopping, clean the mop and empty the dirty water to prevent spreading residue on other areas. Rinse the floor with clean water, and mop thoroughly to eliminate any remaining product or salt residue.

Use an Auto Scrubber: For larger areas or where available, an auto scrubber can streamline this process by simultaneously cleaning and rinsing the floor, helping maintain a uniform appearance and removing deeper debris effectively.

Matt Maintenance Care

Outside Entrance Mats

To keep outside entrance mats effective, sweep the surrounding sidewalk and area daily to minimize tracked-in dirt. Spot-clean mats with a Buckeye carpet spot remover, like Gone H2O2 as needed. Apply the solution to the spot, allow it to dwell, and agitate the area with a brush or carpet bone from the outside toward the center. Blot dry with a clean, absorbent cloth to finish.

Inside Mats

Vacuum inside mats daily, ensuring to overlap each part of the mat by 2-3 inches for maximum soil removal. If needed, use a Buckeye carpet spot remover, like Gone H2O2 for stains. Saturate the spot, allow it to dwell, and then agitate with a brush or carpet bone, working from the edges inward. Blot dry to prevent moisture from soaking into the backing mat.

Interested in Learning More?

Buckeye’s Hard Floor Care Program offers customizable tools to help keep floors pristine, even during the harshest winter months. By combining matting and floor care solutions, Buckeye can help you keep your facility looking clean, safe, and inviting all season long. Reach out to your Buckeye representative to discover how our programs can support your winter maintenance efforts.

Eco Proportioning Systems

Eco Proportioning Systems

Most facilities require a variety of cleaning and disinfecting products to stay clean. This can require purchasing products from different manufacturers, learning new dilution ratios, and finding storage space for bulky ready-to-use products.

Simplify Your Ordering Process 

Eco® proportioning systems dilute all Eco products. This includes disinfectants, cleaners, sanitizers, and carpet care products. When you choose Eco, you have access to any product you need to clean or disinfect your facility. No need to worry about communicating with different suppliers.

Eliminate Dilution Guesswork

Many concentrated products need to be diluted by hand. At best, this process slows down custodial staff members. At worst, it causes improper dilution of important chemicals like disinfectants. Eco proportioning systems take the guesswork out of dilution, automatically diluting products at the proper ratio with a push of a button. Because Eco has a cohesive user interface with a color-coded labeling system, operating the proportioning system is seamless.

Improve Storage Space

Eco offers three proportioning systems, the Eco Pro™, Eco Element™, and Eco Edge™. All are designed to fit in virtually any custodial closet. Eco products are super concentrated, making them compact for storage purposes.

Other Eco Benefits 

Eco products are innovative, high-quality, and cost-effective.

Several Eco products are Green Seal™ certified.

Eco 1.25 L bags are manufactured with 83% less plastic than similarly sized rigid containers.

Eco packaging is made from recycled and post-consumer material.

Eco super concentrated products reduce labor time and offer superior end-use cost.

For more information about the full Eco Proportioning Program, contact your Buckeye representative.

Maintenance Products, Programs, and Training for Healthcare Facilities

Maintenance Products, Programs, and Training for Healthcare Facilities

Combatting the spread of HAIs (healthcare associated infections) in healthcare facilities is a complex task that requires a multi-faceted approach. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities require an effective cleaning and maintenance program to protect staff, visitors, and patients from the spread of germs and illness.

Hand Hygiene 

The CDC states that hand hygiene is one of the most important steps in reducing the spread of germs. Making hand sanitizer and hand washes readily available to staff and visitors can help reduce the risk of the spread of germs, but there are other ways an effective hand hygiene program can combat disease.

In addition to top-of-the-line products, offering education and awareness materials alongside behavior modification tools that inspire immediate hand hygiene practices can increase compliance rates in healthcare facilities.

The Symmetry® Hand Hygiene Program offers those tools and more. Symmetry’s Point of Care tools make hand hygiene available when it’s needed most. For example, the 50 ml Tray Table/W.O.W. Clip puts sanitizer right at the patient’s bedside for easy access before and after patient care.

Cleaning and Disinfecting 

Proper cleaning and disinfecting procedures can have a huge impact on the spread of germs in any healthcare facility. The Buckeye Eco® Proportioning Program simplifies cleaning and disinfecting with automatic dilution, ensuring important products like disinfectants are properly diluted every time.

Eco products include cleaners, disinfectants, and sanitizers for every surface in a hospital or healthcare facility. EPA expects products on List N to kill all strains and variants of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) when used according to the label directions. All Eco disinfectants are on List-N.

However, a cleaning program is not complete without the proper training. Cleaning and disinfecting procedures need to be followed carefully so areas like patient rooms and hospital waiting rooms remain free of germs. To ensure hospital staff have access to the information they need, Buckeye created the Prescription Training Program.

Prescription is a complete maintenance program for hospitals that presents the products, procedures, and training needed to meet your facility’s highest standards. The Prescription program provides training in routine cleaning, patient room cleaning, surgery room cleaning, restroom, carpet care, hard floor care, and product safety. This program and its resources are available online, 24 hours a day.

Reducing the spread of HAIs is a constant battle. Make sure the people in your healthcare facility have access to the tools they need to combat illness. Contact your local sales representative to learn more.

Eco Proportioning Systems

Eco Proportioning Systems

Proper cleaning and disinfecting begin with proper product dilution. Diluting products by hand can be messy, unsafe, and inaccurate. Eco® proportioning systems seamlessly and accurately dilute products without exposing workers to concentrated products.

Accurate Product Dilution

When products are diluted by hand, user error can result in incorrect product dilution. This can be detrimental to the effectiveness of cleaners and disinfectants. Eco proportioning systems prevent dilution mistakes by automatically diluting concentrated products with the push of a button.

Eco proportioning systems are easy to operate and color and number coded making products easy to identify while filling spray bottles and mop buckets.

Protection from Harsh Chemicals

Like many cleaners and disinfectants, Eco products are super concentrated to reduce labor time and offer superior end use cost. Diluting products by hand exposes workers to super concentrated products. Eco proportioning systems are self-contained, meaning staff members have no contact with concentrated products or exposed tubing.

Compact

Eco proportioning systems can fit in virtually any custodial closet. Depending on the needs of your facility, choose between the Eco Pro®, Eco Element®, and Eco Edge®. The Eco Pro is designed for broad spectrum cleaning and can dilute for up to six different applications. The Eco Element and Eco Edge are designed for remote and focused applications, diluting for up to 3 different applications.

Sustainability

Because Eco proportioning systems utilize concentrated products, less packaging is required to ship Eco products. Eco’s packaging consists of recycled and post-consumer material and Eco 1.25 L bags are manufactured with 83% less plastic than rigid containers.

The Eco Proportioning Program 

Eco proportioning systems are part of the larger Eco Proportioning Program. This program includes training and educational materials highlighting proper procedures that promote human health and safety.

Keep your facility clean with the Eco proportioning program. Contact your Buckeye representative to see which proportioning systems and products are right for your facility.

Omicron and Buckeye’s 4 Levels of Protection

Omicron and Buckeye’s 4 Levels of Protection

COVID-19 continues to evolve, causing new variants to occur, many of which are being tracked as the pandemic continues. Because these variants are each unique, they can spread at different speeds and can be more resistant to treatments or vaccines. The COVID-19 variant, Omicron, has been detected in most states and is rapidly increasing the proportion of COVID-19 cases in the US. In addition to getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and maintaining social distance, keeping your environment clean can go a long way in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Facilities hoping to navigate the pandemic should develop a step-by-step cleaning and disinfecting program that will protect people who visit. Buckeye’s Door to Floor: 4 Levels of Protection program can help provide those who enter your facility with peace of mind during the pandemic.

Level 1: Protect Yourself with the Symmetry® Hand Hygiene Program

CDC Recommendation: Hand washing is one of the best ways you can help reduce the spread of germs.

Symmetry can help your facility implement a hand hygiene program, providing tools that promote education, awareness, and motivation to practice hand hygiene.

Level 2: Intermittently protect your facility with the Eco® Proportioning Program

CDC Recommendations: Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces following product label directions and proper dwell times. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved several Buckeye products for use against SARS-Related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [cause of COVID-19], including Buckeye Eco One-Step Disinfectant-Deodorizer-Cleaner E22. The Eco Proportioning Program comes with training materials and tools to help staff with proper disinfecting procedures. 

Level 3: Use Clarion® 25 Microban® Antimicrobial Floor Finish and Arena® Microban Antimicrobial Wood Floor Coating

Microban technology is built-in to these products during the manufacturing process. When microbes come in contact with the product surface, Microban technology penetrates the cell wall of the microorganism and disrupts the cell, making the microorganism unable to grow and reproduce. * 

*Microban technology does not protect users against disease-causing microorganisms. Microban Products Company makes neither direct nor implied public health claims. Normal cleaning practices should be maintained.

Level 4: Protect your facility with Gateway Liners and recommendations

Use stronger, better fitting liners to minimize contaminant exposure. Gateway Liners performs rigorous strength, weight, puncture and tear tests.

Properly dispose trash into lined containers and frequently replace liners. Frequently clean and disinfect inside and outside of trash containers. 

Buckeye takes COVID-19 seriously and continues to take a proactive approach in our effort to help minimize exposure to illness. Buckeye programs strive to educate the public on the importance of best cleaning, disinfecting, and hand hygiene practices. Contact your local representative to find out more about Buckeye’s Door to Floor: 4 Levels of Protection program.

Standardize Your Cleaning Program with Eco

Standardize Your Cleaning Program with Eco

The Eco® Proportioning Program can help standardize cleaning in any facility. With cleaners, disinfectants, sanitizers, and odor eliminators all dispensable from one system, Eco makes cleaning easy for staff of any facility.

There are three compact Eco proportioning systems, made to fit in virtually any custodial closet. Designed for broad spectrum cleaning, the Eco Pro can dilute for up to six different applications. The more compact Eco Element and Edge are designed for remote, satellite, and focused applications, each diluting for up to three applications. Each proportioning system operates the same, automatically diluting products with the press of a button, taking the guess work out of product dilution.

Eco’s extensive product line provides products to clean any part of your facility. They are each color and number coded to make proportioning even easier. Each product’s number and color match with its corresponding bottle and proportioning system dispenser. Recently a church in Phoenix, AZ switched from ready-to-use products to the Eco Proportioning Program. They had also been using several different product dispensers throughout their facilities, making diluting cleaners a confusing, time consuming process. The Eco proportioning systems automatically diluted products and each Eco product, bottle, and dispenser is labeled with a corresponding color and number making it easy to distinguish between products. Switching to Eco helped consolidate their cleaning supplies and develop a better cleaning system.

For schools looking to implement the Eco Proportioning Program, Buckeye’s Honors Custodial Training Program can help guide staff as they clean. Available 24 hours a day, the Honors Program provides training in routine cleaning, restroom, shower and locker room cleaning, carpet care, hard floor care, gym floor care, food service procedures, summer cleaning procedures, and product safety. The program presents easy to follow procedures that are researched and proven to increase efficiency with videos, tests, training manuals, product literature, and wall charts.

For more information about the Eco Proportioning Program and how it can simplify cleaning in your facility, contact your local Buckeye representative.

Green Cleaning with the Eco Proportioning Program

Green Cleaning with the Eco Proportioning Program

In the cleaning industry, being green is more than providing eco-friendly chemistry. Buckeye’s Eco® Proportioning Program is committed to providing the most innovative, high performance and cost-effective products, packaging, and proportioning systems to promote human health and safety.

Green Seal Certified Products

Several Eco products are Green Seal® certified. One of the first ecolabeling nonprofits, Green Seal has pioneered the movement, setting high standards for human health, reduced environmental impact, and excellent performance. Green Seal has certified thousands of products in the hopes of producing a greener, healthier world.

Eco Green Seal certified products exemplify our commitment to manufacturing safer products for the worker and environment. In fact, Eco Green Seal certified products not only outperform other green cleaners, they outperform other conventional chemistries.  

Packaging 

Eco products are packaged with reliable and recyclable materials to ensure worker and environmental safety.

Eco 1.25 L Bags

  • Hermetically sealed to ensure no contamination.
  • Flexible to eliminate product waste, delivering a 99% evacuation rate.
  • Manufactured with 83% less plastic than rigid containers.
  • New metering plug in every bag ensures no tip clogging and highly accurate dilution.
  • Spill proof to prevent contact with concentrated product.
  • Compact size for easy transport and storage.

Eco Outer Box and Inner Carton Packaging

Eco outer box packaging is recyclable, double wall corrugated and made from 41% recycled material. Eco inner carton packaging is made from 100% recycled paperboard and 35% post-consumer material.

Eco Proportioning System

Eco proportioning systems were designed with employee safety in mind. They automatically dilute products, eliminating direct contact with concentrated products and ensuring products are diluted according to manufacturer specifications. The concentrated products diluted by Eco proportioning systems require less packaging and weigh less, eliminating additional freight/fuel charges required to ship.

The Eco Pro, Eco Element, and Eco Edge proportioning systems are user friendly. All proportioning systems are color and number coded to correspond with product packaging, making it safe and easy for employees to operate the system.

To find out more about the Eco Proportioning Program’s commitment to sustainability, contact your local Buckeye representative.

Maximize Efficiency with the Eco Proportioning Program

Maximize Efficiency with the Eco Proportioning Program

From general cleaning to restroom cleaning and food service area cleaning, the wide range of necessary products can begin to add up. Keeping track of the dilution rate and application of each product can get overwhelming. It can start to waste the time of staff members and, in some cases, prevent them from cleaning and disinfecting properly. The Eco® Proportioning Program is designed to maximize efficiency with easy-to-operate proportioning systems, cohesive labeling, and outstanding product performance.

All Eco products are proportioned through Eco proportioning systems. Eco proportioning systems are automatic, compact, and self-contained with a cohesive user interface and experience. All three proportioning systems (Eco Pro®, Eco Element®, and Eco Edge®) have the same user interface with seamless push and lock buttons. All Eco products are diluted and dispensed with the push of a button, consolidating the dilution process for all facility cleaners and disinfectants.

Eco products use a unique and intuitive labeling system to help staff members easily identify products. Each Eco product has a corresponding color and number that can be found on the product packaging, spray bottle, and proportioning system. In combination with Eco’s proportioning systems, Eco’s labeling system simplifies the proportioning process for all staff members, helping them focus on the more important task of cleaning.

Eco products cover all your facility’s cleaning needs including food service and preparation areas, restrooms, carpet cleaning, and other general cleaning. When asked about his elementary school’s switch to Eco, one head custodian said, “Staff has really liked the change to Eco. The chemicals work a lot better than what we used in the past.” Because Eco products work better than other cleaners and disinfectants, staff members no longer have to waste time recleaning areas because residue has been left behind. Eco products work on the first application.

When Buckeye representatives install Eco proportioning systems, they train staff members on the proportioning systems and products. Eco also has customizable wall charts that staff members can refer to as they dispense products and clean. Staff members at one university commented on the helpfulness of Buckeye training and wall charts, saying, “Buckeye has been extremely helpful in making sure that our staff is properly trained. I like the wall charts above the systems. If I ever forget what a chemical does or how to install a bag, it’s posted right there.”

With Eco and the training provided by Buckeye representatives, staff members can be confident in a clean facility. To find out more about the Eco Proportioning Program, contact your local Buckeye representative.

Eco All-Purpose Cleaner E11 S11

Eco All-Purpose Cleaner E11 S11

Eco® All-Purpose Cleaner E11 S11 is a super concentrated, versatile cleaner that quickly breaks down and lifts soils, preventing them from being redeposited on surfaces. With E11, there is no rinsing required and no dull film left behind.

E11 is one product designed for many jobs. It has two dilution rates for multiple applications and can be used with mop buckets, automatic scrubbers, spray bottles, and other applications. It can be used on floors, walls, ceramic tile, partitions, fixtures, countertops, and other hard, nonporous surfaces. It does not require more product to work under hard water conditions and dilutes in cold water to save money.

E11

E11 is designed with human and environmental safety in mind. It’s formulated without harmful chemicals like APEO and EDTA. It is also Green Seal certified, meeting Green Seal Standard GS-37 based on effective performance, concentrated volume, minimized/recycled packaging and protective limits on VOCs and human & environmental toxicity.

Like all products in Buckeye’s Eco Proportioning Program, E11 has a low end-use cost. The Eco Proportioning Program uses proportioning systems to automatically dilute products at the proper ratio, ensuring no product goes to waste and saving employee time. The Eco Pro proportioning system can dilute for up to 6 applications while the Eco Element is more compact, diluting for up to 3 applications.

Eco All-Purpose Cleaner is also available in the S11 Eco .95 L Squeeze & Pour Bottle. This is the same product, packaged for individual product dilution. Whether you don’t have the space for a full proportioning system or have a need to dilute for more applications than your proportioning system provides, Eco Squeeze & Pour Bottles make it easy to measure and dilute individual products at the correct rate.

You can customize the Eco Proportioning Program to meet your facility’s needs, considering your space availability, how many products you will dilute, and additional security options. Contact your local buckeye representative to learn more about how Eco fits in your facility.

Eco Glass Cleaner HD E12 S12

Eco Glass Cleaner HD E12 S12

Eco® Glass Cleaner HD E12 S12 is an effective, environmentally responsible glass cleaner. It is Green Seal certified, meeting Green Seal Standard GS-37 based on effective performance, concentrated volume, minimized/recycled packaging, and protective limits on VOCs and human and environmental toxicity. It contains no alcohol, butyl, or ammonia— ingredients that may be harmful to employees or damaging to surfaces.

Eco Glass Cleaner HD E12 S12

Eco Glass Cleaner HD E12 S12 is designed for use on glass, windows, mirrors, Plexiglas®, computer screens, optical scanners etc. It’s quick drying with a pleasant ocean surf fragrance and leaves behind no residue or streaks, reducing time and labor.

E12 is one of several Eco products that is available in Eco .95 L squeeze & pour bottles. This packaging provides easy measuring and dilutes to create 17 quarts worth of product. Eco Glass Cleaner HD also comes in Eco’s 1.25 L bag. The 1.25 L bag yields 99% of the product and is automatically diluted through an Eco proportioning system, creating 22 quarts of end-use product.

Buckeye’s Eco Proportioning Program provides value and convenience with systems, packaging, and chemistry that is economical, ecologically friendly, reliable, simple to use, and designed for your facility to achieve maximum return on your investment. To learn more about Eco Glass Cleaner HD E12 S12 and the Eco Proportioning Program, contact your local Buckeye representative.