Bissell goes green with eco-friendly cleaning products, recycled plastics

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Three years ago, as Walker-based Bissell, Inc. began reviewing it’s ‘green’ policies and processes, company leaders realized it had been pretty eco-friendly all along, especially considering the first carpet sweeper was human powered.

Three new products could revolutionize how families clean their homes using appliances made of recycled materials, appliances that use no electricity, and cleaning chemicals that are earth- and people-friendly: Natural Sweep, a non-electric carpet sweeper made of recycled plastics; Super Concentrate Fiber Cleansing formula with Environmenal Protection Agency-certified ‘green’ chemicals and very little water (consumers add it at home) to save resources used for transporting water; and Steam Shot, a handheld hard surface cleaner that cleans with nothing but plain steam.

In 2005, Bissell began to recycle parts and plastics from its own returned products, putting the materials back into the production stream and saving about 1.7 million pounds of plastics from landfills annually. It stopped using Styrofoam. And last year the company reformulated all its carpet and fabric cleaning chemicals to earth-friendly formulas, with each product receiving certification through the EPA’s Design for Environment program.

“Continuous improvement is to become a little green, and then a little greener,” says Jim Krzeminski, spokesperson. “I don’t think we can ever be 100 percent green, there is always so much more we can do.

“We started taking a hard look at each product,” Krzeminski says. “The sweeper is near and dear to our hearts because it’s the product that started it all on Sept. 19, 132 years ago. We’ve gone on to new technology and new vacuums, but if you want to talk energy efficiency it’s a simplistic design that still works 132 years later.”

Source: Jim Krzeminski, Bissell, Inc.

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].