Thursday, 17 November 2011

Green apple award for Gatwick


In a national campaign to find Britain’s greenest companies, councils and communities, Bio-Productions, in partnership with OCS and Gatwick Airport Ltd, have won a Green Apple Environment Award for helping to reduce the environmental impacts of cleaning Gatwick, the UK's second largest airport. The Green Apple Awards are run by The Green Organisation to recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world.


The award ceremony was held in the House of Commons on November 14, 2011 and representatives from OCS, GAL and Bio-Productions were present to receive their Green Apple awards. The companies were also invited to have their winning paper published in The Green Book, the leading international work of reference on environmental best practice, and will also be considered to represent their country in the European Business Awards for the Environment. The introduction of Bio-Productions biological cleaning products at Gatwick has resulted in a recognised improvement in washroom air quality.

The airport’s environmental impact has also been reduced in a number of ways.

A reduction in chemical use has led to fewer deliveries and less on-site stock movement, with an anticipated saving of approximately 100 truck miles a year. Bio-Productions biological urinal blocks have been introduced in all the washrooms, bringing an annual reduction in water usage of around 100,000 litres per urinal, per annum as well as energy savings on pumping and moving water to the airport’s effluent treatment plant.

The cleaning products are also stored in a smaller area resulting in lower energy consumption.

Adrian Shuker, Sustainability Director for OCS who provide cleaning services in the airport’s public areas, commented: “It has been one of our top priorities to enhance the passenger experience, especially in the washroom, and to add value for the client through environmental efficiencies. Our partnership with Bio-Productions has helped us achieve this goal.”



Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Beware of the BULL


Interestingly I saw this sign while driving home from work, just after having been contacted by one of our export customers.

He had asked me to look at a website, as a competitor included the claims that they were the creators of the biological, non-pDCB urinal block and ‘waterless systems’

My problem – they are customers of ours!

Having supplied them with biological products this company tried to patent our technology – claiming they were the creators and go on to tell potential customers that they ‘invented’ these products.

When contacted about this their response was, ‘well, you’ve got to try.’

Try it on, more like.

So – Beware of the bull...

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Washroom Odours


Bio Productions have had amazing feedback from customers who have used our Biological Blocks (Toss Blocks) together with Blu-Away. They report success in a couple of days. The odours have been completely eradicated and all the smells of urine and ammonia gone.

This has, ‘improved the washroom experience significantly.’

Blu-Away is a washroom cleaner that can be sprayed-&-wiped onto all surfaces and used as a general cleaner but when used on the floor around and under the urinal, the microorganisms in the product colonise any dribbled urine and convert it into non-aromatic gas and water.

Not only does Blu-Away have the type of bacteria to remove urine by eating it but it will also remove any build-up of uric scale under the urinal without damaging the flooring material , something acid products will do if used on marble and decorative floor tiles.

Waterless Urinals?

Since introducing the first non-pDCB urinal blocks nearly twenty years ago we’ve seen a number of products launched that make unsubstantiated claims about their cleaning ability.

Often though, these claims are coupled with the additional ‘benefits’ of enabling the client to go ‘waterless’.

Obviously the drains from urinals offer a pretty hostile environment to bacteria, so it is important to use the correct types in sufficiently large numbers so they can make a difference.

By colonising the pipe work with bacillus it is possible to alleviate some or all of the odours, but this is only part of the problem, which is usually unseen until there is a problem and then it is too late.

Progressively there will be a gradual build-up of the solids both evacuated from the body and in the flush-down water and it is invariably because of these solids that the waterless systems fail.

The ‘unique selling point’ (USP) of the waterless system is that of saving water. However the only ‘successful’ waterless systems substitute flush-down water, delivered occasionally by a controlled flow-meter from the cistern, with manual application of a measure of water and cleaning fluid.

The necessity to ‘purge’ the system occasionally is therefore replaced by a simple automatic cycle to that of relying upon someone to mix and pour a measure of liquid into each urinal a couple of times a day. Hardly surprising that this task is often sidelined when you consider the poor cleaner with a bank of 20 or more urinals and only enough time to ensure the paper towels are picked up and the floors and worktops cleaned.

Even more surprising is the growth of the concept of putting the cleaning block into a gizmo.

(What is it about plastic and capital equipment that people are so keen to invest in?)

To stay dry in a rainstorm most of us would use an umbrella, so why do some companies insist that their cleaning power can best be delivered by protecting the block with a plastic umbrella?

When Bio-Productions created the first biological urinal block it was formulated to last around 5 to 7 days in the average urinal. The concept being that, each time the urinal was used a cleaning solution would be delivered into the trap and pipes. By protecting the block in some type of dome and making it last 3 months ‘between service intervals’ the block theoretically needs to be about 15 times as big, because, unless sufficient bacteria and / or cleaning chemicals are delivered into the pipes the product just won’t work.

We’ve been approached by a number of companies selling ‘waterless’ systems because of the problems in the pipes beyond the trap. Gradually, because there isn’t the occasional ‘purge’ the inorganic solids build-up in the pipes and block them. By using the Bio Block (which contains around 20 different strains of specially selected bacteria to break-down urine and uric-scale etc.), and reducing the flush frequency to three times each day, not only to you maximise the benefit from the cleaning efficacy of the Bio Block, but also save (on average) around 100,000 litres of water – per urinal – per year.

No fuss, no nonsense – no kidding.



New Catalogue

Finally after months of photo taking and tweaking the text we have the new Bio Productions catalogue

see it online here ... http://www.bio-productions.com/cat2011/