[Mike Halliday]

Trevor, am i the mike you are referring to? if so I don't have a negative attitude towards green issues, I just don't believe it is a high priority to most of our customers.

I'VE JUST DELETED A BIG LONG ANSWER

 but I've shortened it to this simple fact. no one has asked me about green cleaning or how my cleaning effects the planet, I don't go around with my head stuck in the mud, I'm speaking to customers and other carpet cleaners every day, and what the other carpet cleaners are saying is they don't get asked either.

i can clean greener than most of the carpet cleaners who try and sell themselves as treehuggers, and if anyone ever asks, I'll do it, but at risk of repeating myself, no one does!

Mike

[Kinver_Clean]

There are two things here--- carbon emissions and chemical pollution.

Carbon emissions causing global warming IMO is Bull, just another way to raise more taxes. The Earth has been through temperature cycles ever since it began and the amount of CO2 has lagged behind the temerature rise every time. It is governed by the Sun's activity and varies over thousands of years with shorter 'wobbles' superimposed.

Chemical polution is another matter, some of the cleaning products used by Mrs Housewife are horrendous read the labels and then do a bit of digging on the net to find out the real impact of some of these things. I have at last persueded my wife to stop using those that make her cough when she is using them

I advertise that I use biosafe products and get a lot of enquiries - and jobs from this. I am not saying that the average detergent based carpet cleaning product is evil but some are better than others by a long way.

Rant over I'm having another beer.

Trevor

[spindle]

but the average  mrs housewife doesnt really care they just want clean carpets............

if mrs h was concerned about the enviroment would she still put bleach/ or other cleaners down toilets or drains..........

i think that mrs h would care if we offered a discounted clean for us using enviro friendly cleaning solutions...then maybe!!!!

 if people ask... then we can provide.but i dont offer this as a standard cleaning procedure...............provided at a ramped up price of course

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I do believe the 'green issue' is more prevolent on the web - imagine typing 'carpet cleaning' and you will get carpet cleaners - now type 'green carpet cleaning.

irrelivant of what YOU get, the answer will be a 'GREEN' carpet cleaners,  all depends on what THEY the customer are looking for on the web!

I agree you are looking for the minority BUT if GREEN washing up liquid is 50% more and they buy it do you think they may buy carpet cleaning at a better rate than MRS "I'm only asking for a friend?"

Shaun

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Yes Shaun, I did a job wednesday which was specified "green', used Prochem Pureclean aka sodium tripolyphosphate , MS to some.

A 25 % premium was added and the customer was very happy.

Green carpet cleaning will become bigger, particularly at the higher end of the market which is where I want to be.

Cheers

Doug

[Mike Halliday]

Doug could i ask how you learned to green carpet clean so quickly to offer this service. did you attend any training courses or have to pass any exams, or even register onto any websites.

or did someone just say 'can you green clean my carpet? and you said 'yes'

as soon as this green cleaning becomes big and people start asking about it I will jump on the bandwagon.

Mike

[Mike Halliday]

BLOODY HELL!!! AFTER READING DOUGS POST AGAIN I'VE JUST REALISED I'VE BEEN A GREEN CLEANER AS FOR OVER 7 YEARS AND  HAD'NT EVEN REALISED IT

 I'VE CLEANED WITH M/S AND RINSED WITH JUST FRESHWATER FOR OVER 7 YRS!!

 

mike

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Mike,

Yes I had to register on www.greencarpetcleaners.co.uk 

I supose 8 years working an Industrial chemist also helped a little

Cheers

Doug

[Mike Halliday]

 Doug, I'm well aware of you impressive CV

the point i was trying to make is, we all can become green cleaners when the need arises we already have the knowledge and it takes little change. so we should concentrate on what is important to customer now and leave the green until its needed.

mike

ps this is the last time i'm going to post on green issues because I'm starting to sound like a broken record and its getting boring :

[Ian Gourlay]

Yet another Doug web site

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

We are at the forefront of our industry and I include lots of CC's on here in that statement.

We are always looking at better products , equipment etc so why not educate the customer along the way, afterall we advise to avoid fairy Liquid, Vanish Oxi on wool etc on an almost daily basis so why not greener cleaning.

Of course the cynic could suggest it's all just marketing hype, which of course a lot of it is , but some of that hype turns into change for the better.

Ian,

I've got 15 CC ones, it's my hobby along with beer

Cheers

Doug

[ianharper]

guys

the issue here is message. not so much about you and how you clean, or the prospect asking you its about matching a market that is out there.

The reason you are not getting prospects talking to you about the green issues is that by your own admission you don't ask for those type of people to do business with you because its not in your message. with respect.

how many different messages do you have? i have three main one's at the moment, house selling, asthma sufferers, and basis carpet cleaning, plus i am working on a forth, upholstery cleaning that sells both fabric and leather. all sell just one message and not weakened by lumping them all together.

by using different media and different messages i talk to that one need. being general can have drawbacks. you cant be everything to everyone as this weakens the message.

for example, free newspapers. most have home for sale in the middle pages, someone that's is thinking of selling will look to see if homes like theirs are selling for what price. its a fact that most people when making large spend decisions can start to take in info two years before buying, (pre selling)

so anyway, a leaflet talking about improving the sale value though clean, nice smelling, carpets and the link to the sellability of a house will match that person need more than a general carpet cleaning leaflet. placed into a free newspaper and will put in on their radar. (message to market match)

Doug, be careful if you have lots of the same text on them Google will drop your ranking, its happened to me and i am having problems fixing it. lucky we have Yahoo and MS

Respect

Ian Harper

[Len Gribble]

Can’t believe it wife went to Morrison yesterday why I don’t know (normally uses every little helps) think they need to look into my welfare daily amount 30% salt the product must have been 100% as that all I tasted (thought I was back in TN they like a bit seasoning) sod the carpets

Len

[woodman]

Hi Mike, no not you the other one,

I would like the have seen the long answer you gave though 

 I won't repeat what I have already said on the subject (again) either, as you say this subject will raise it's head again very shortly.

Any way off to do a 'Green' clean now   

[Mike Osbourne]

 :

[John Kelly]

A post I made on another forum about the same subject:
As a supplier of said products and a larger proportion of traditional products I can see both sides of the argument. The EU is currently testing every chemical in everyday use. Already some popular solvents many of which were used in carpet cleaning have been banned. The reasons vary from being carcinogenic to being non biodegradable in the environment. Which basically means they don't break down and over time build up until they will start to affect our water supplies and food chains. If we just carried on using them it would be very difficult to eradicate them from our water supplies etc. Its our children we have to think of here.
There is a major transport operator currently using Nemesis Degreaser to clean their garage floors. This is where hundreds of buses are stored overnight with the resulting drips of oil and diesel causing build ups on the concrete floor. What do they do, they can't just pour a detergent degreaser on and wash it down the drains. They have been and using an oil seperator to capture the waste oil. However the water remaining was still highly poluted and was still classed as hazardous waste. Using Nemesis has enabled them to drastically reduce the efluent held in the water as the degreaser floats to the surface with the oil. The remaining water is much cleaner and they hope to have clearance shortly to dispose of this down the sewers. This will save them hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.
I know this doesn't directly relate to carpet cleaning but gives an insight in what is happening in the larger world outside.
You will find more and more commercial customers will be demanding eco friendly products to be used on their premises.
You mustn't get all this eco stuff mixed up with global warming which is a completely different issue. Recycling and using biodegradble products is about not poluting and not using up the worlds resources, which will run out eventually. Global warming still has to be proved in my opinion. It was all started by one Margaret Thatcher. She was the first politician to dedicate money to the study. Why? because she wanted proof that coal fired power stations were bad for the evvironment so she could get rid of the coal mines and also to push Nuclear power who husband Dennis had major investments in.

Traditional detergents are safe to use provided you follow the instructions and don't mix them up with your arm as I have seen my staff do in the past