This article is Part 2 of our 2 part series on selling green janitorial paper products. If you have not read Part 1, which covers the basic issues around green paper products and recycling, I recommend that you read this article (click here). And if you are new to DestinationGreen and this series on Selling Green Products, I recommend that you go back and read some of the past issues including Building your Bundle (Issue 2) and several others on the green selling process in general (for the complete list of archived articles, click here).

This article will cover source reduction strategies and dispensers, along with the issue of paper bleaching to complete what you should know to succeed when selling green janitorial paper products. In addition, I have included some information about electric dryers versus paper hand towels – it’s an issue that you’ll need to be prepared for.

Source Reduction (Dispensing)
Regardless of what might be the most important issue from an environmental or sustainability perspective, the first thing you will get asked by a green customer is about the recycled content of your product. And now that we have covered this in Part 1 of this series, let’s start looking for ways to reduce the actual amount of product being use – source reduction. In many respects there is no better, simpler or cost-effective way to reduce environmental impacts than to simply reduce the amount of product being consumed.

The following are some of the strategies that you can use with your customers and prospects:

These simple strategies have been found to among other things reduce janitorial paper consumption between 10 and 15 percent, which can be a good strategy to help offset any potential increase in cost for good quality recycled paper. And it has tremendous environmental benefits at the same time as there is a multiplier effect by reducing manufacturing and its impacts on forests and pollution to water, air, solid waste during manufacturing; transportation and disposal impacts.

Why Convert An Existing Account?
Before I talk about the issues around paper bleaching, I have to comment on why you should convert your existing accounts who might for example be using your multi-fold towels. For some, this might seem like a bad strategy because of the time and costs involved with replacing dispensers.

But the reason this is important is that if you don’t upgrade your customer – your competitor will! And while it may seem costly to do the replacement, take a minute and calculate the cost for losing all the paper business and possibly all other business to your competitor. Changing paper products as identified above makes sense (yes, cents as well). It’s going to happen and we would prefer that you keep the business. So don’t look at replacing dispensers as just something you want to do in a new account.

Bleaching
The next issue that the green community will be interested in is how the products are bleached. For years the primary way that paper was bleached was with chlorine, which is typically identified as “elemental chlorine”. When chlorine is combined with carbon-based substances such as wood and other naturally occurring organic material, it produces by-products called chlorinated organic compounds, including dioxins and furans.

When released into water, dioxins do not break down. As early as 1985, EPA labeled dioxin "the most potent carcinogen ever tested in laboratory animals." When fish eat contaminated materials, the dioxin travels up the food chain, bioaccumulating in the fatty tissues of fish, sea birds and mammals. Therefore, even a minuscule amount in water can create a significant risk in humans and wildlife. Increasingly, research links dioxins to endocrine, reproductive, nervous and immune system damage.

The paper industry has instituted pollution prevention changes that have reduced dioxin emissions by 92% since 1988. In the past few years, virtually all mills in the U.S. and Canada have stopped using elemental chlorine gas for bleaching. Almost all have switched to using a chlorine derivative instead, primarily chlorine dioxide.

Thus, when selling green paper you should avoid selling paper bleached with chlorine or bleached without the use of elemental chlorine. This paper is known as elemental chlorine-free (ECF) paper. Compared to paper bleached with elemental chlorine, converting your customer to ECF paper is an important step. Especially if you combine this with a high percentage of post-consumer recycled content and a good dispensing program that reduces consumption.

Some paper companies also offer products that are totally chlorine-free using neither elemental chlorine nor chlorine dioxide. This paper is typically beached with hydrogen peroxide which even further reduces environmental impacts.

It is interesting to note that certification programs are currently offered by both Green Seal and Environmental Choice for janitorial paper products. These certification programs make buying and selling green paper easier, but most major green building programs such as the US Green Building Council’s LEED for Existing Buildings Rating System and the Healthy Schools Campaign’s Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools do NOT required the use of certified products.

While they do REQUIRE a minimum amount of post-consumer recycled content, these programs only suggest a PREFERENCE for chlorine-free bleaching and do NOT specify the bleaching at this time. And in addition, they do focus on dispensers and source reduction issues.

Electric Dryers Versus Paper Towels
As a Green Cleaning sales person be prepared to get asked about replacing all paper hand towels with electric dryers, especially as more energy efficient electric dryers enter the market.

There are environmental benefits to be had by switching to energy efficient electric hand dryers – no fiber recycled or virgin, reduced environmental impacts from manufacturing, and virtually eliminating waste.

But my personal bias comes from a health stand point. There is probably nothing more important from a public health perspective than hand washing. Thus, things that encourage hand washing are preferable compared to those that discourage hand washing. After 25 years in the cleaning industry, my experience has been that people prefer paper when both are available. So if an electric dryer discourages people from washing their hands, this is not a good thing even if the number of people is small.

Also, I am always concerned about what happens to the water from people’s hands. The typical procedure for using an electric dryer is to shake the excess water from our hands – but where does it go? If the excess water is being flicked onto floors it can lead to slips and falls. And on both floors and walls it can contribute to mold and other problems.

And then there is the question of what happens when high velocity air blows the water droplets off hands. Again, where does it go? And perhaps more importantly, what are those droplets potentially contaminated with? An airborne particle potentially contaminated with pathogenic organisms does not seem to me like a good option, especially when another option is so readily available. Thus, my preference for paper. But regardless of your position on electric dryers versus paper, you should be prepared for the discussion.

Remember, we are NOT suggesting that people stop using janitorial paper. Rather, the green community would just prefer using paper that reduces the health and environmental impacts compared to using traditional paper made from virgin tree fiber and bleached with chlorine compounds.

Good luck selling your Green Cleaning program. Remember, customers are going to buy green products from someone, and we’d prefer that it’s from you.