Most commercial and industrial businesses have areas or
equipment that is cleaned weekly or daily. This is to maintain hygiene
standards, but it's also good housekeeping. Cleaning uses a lot of water. In
fact, cleaning processes can use 10% - 40% of all water per site.
Below are some tips for how you can make your cleaning
processes more water efficient.
Improvements to your housekeeping practices can reduce the amount of pollutants in your wastewater as well as reduce energy costs associated with hot water.
- Inspect your site and equipment for any spills and leaks. These can increase your wash-down frequency.
- Use contamination control floor mats. They will reduce the volume of waste tracked through your business.
- Schedule product changes so you can process similar products at the same time. This can minimise the need to wash equipment between different products.
- Install baskets, silt traps or screens in drains. Make sure they are regularly emptied into waste bins.
- Install deflection panels or chutes to prevent product from falling off production equipment.
- Install drip trays or bunding where product may fall on the production floor and be washed into the wastewater stream.
- Calibrate filling equipment to prevent overfilling.
Automatic washers can be up to 95% more water-efficient than alternatives like pressure washing.
- Inspect automatic washers regularly. This will make sure they are operating as efficiently as possible.
- Discuss water efficiency with manufacturers or distributors. Make sure your equipment is up-to-date with advancements in water efficiency.
- Schedule washes only when machines are fully loaded.
- Re-use final rinse water for pre-rinse cycles in washers.