WASHROOM HYGIENE
The cleaner-focusedwashroom
Lee Radzki of Tork manufacturer Essity looks at the importance of developing washroom systems that are designed to make life easier for the cleaner.
Washroom providers need to bear a number of things in mind when designing and equipping their facilities.
They need to ensure that publicly-used washrooms are pleasant places to visit, for example. Such facilities should also be cost-effective to run and sustainably operated, but how far is the role of the cleaner ever considered during the development process?
Cleaners have a difficult job to do – particularly in the washroom. These days their numbers have become relatively thin on the ground. Poor pay, sub-standard working conditions and the stresses of COVID have made the cleaning role tougher than ever. As a result, large numbers of operatives have left the sector which means many environments are now chronically understaffed.
So, it is important for facilities to make the cleaner’s life easier wherever possible in order to retain good workers and keep them engaged.
Cleaning a washroom can be challenging. Most tasks will need to be carried out by hand because machine-cleaning is often impractical in such a small, cramped space.
Operatives will be forced to work around members of the public to ensure that the facilities remain in operation at all times. Their job also requires a great deal of manual handling along with heavy lifting, bending, stretching and reaching. These types of activities can lead to aches, pains and musculoskeletal disorders.
34 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING
The specifics of the job can be a headache, too. For example, cleaners need to keep all soap and paper dispensers replenished around the clock because any failure to do so could result in hand hygiene being compromised and complaints being received from users. So, how can all these issues be addressed?
The design of a washroom can have a huge impact on the cleaner’s working day. Continuous floors and surfaces will be significantly easier to clean than small tiles with grout lines, for example. Automatic taps will also attract fewer fingermarks than manual versions, and curved dispensers with no sharp corners or edges where dirt could collect will be easier to wipe clean than more boxy units.
All dispensers should be easy to open and refill, and designed to reduce consumption because this will lighten the maintenance burden. Bulk fill soaps need to be manually refilled – a task that can be both messy and time- consuming. Any spills will have to be removed from sinks and this will further add to the cleaner’s workload.
A sealed soap cartridge that slots into place inside the dispenser will remove the need for manual refilling and speed up the process. For example, refill cartridges for Tork Foam Soap can be inserted into the dispenser within seconds.
C-fold dispensers offer a relatively low hand towel capacity which makes it tempting for the cleaner to jam as many towels as possible inside the unit. However, it can be hard for the user to pull out a single towel from an over-stuffed
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