The “Clean is Green” Trend
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Image Credit: varsityFS at YouTube
The “Clean is Green” trend may have started with Don Aslett, shown in the video above. He has long been working to link cleaning and the cleaning profession with a high quality of life.
Don Aslett says the traditional viewpoint on people who clean just isn’t the right outlook, and he’s always used humor to change people’s attitudes. The image above shows him with a “stethoscope” made out of a cleaning brush and electrical cord. (He jokingly used it as a way to remind doctors in the hospital he cleaned that he was just as valuable as they were.)
Aslett is a well-loved expert in the janitorial industry. He’s written lots of books on cleaning, and has a friendly, down-to-earth way of speaking. At nearly 80 years old, he’s spent the last 59 years cleaning.
His outlook is that cleaning is needed everywhere and is one of the most important professions out there.
“…clean air, clean sheet, clean language…clean water, anything clean is delightful.”
Raleigh North Carolina’s “Green is Clean” Program
Image Credit: godowntownraleigh.com
One demonstration of a growing appreciation of the value of “Clean” is the “Clean is Green Raleigh” program run by the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. The City has kicked off the program with futuristic solar-powered city trash collection bins, which compact their own trash.
New York State’s Green Cleaning Program
Image Credit: New York’s Green Cleaning Program
New York’s has a “Green Cleaning Program”. It encourages organizations to abandon industrial cleaners for the safer green varieties.
By switching to environmentally sensitive products, New York’s Green Cleaning website says it can reduce poor air quality, reduce sick days, increase productivity and provide cost savings.
Other states are following suit. Currently, New York, as well as Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut and Hawaii require their schools to use green cleaning products.
“Clean and Green” Program in L.A. Schools
While most programs linking “Clean” with “Green” are recent additions, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps began in 1988 – with its Clean & Green program.
Each year, more than 1,100 middle and high school children have the opportunity to experience environmentalism through trash collection, removing graffiti and planting trees to help make their communities beautiful.
In one year, the program cleaned 10,856 alleys and city blocks, painted 11 murals, planted and maintained 6,840 trees, maintained 68,478 feet of gardens and disposed of 1,573,749 pounds of litter and trash.