Olympic Cleaning

by Andy Angelos

Cleaning is one of the most popular and exciting themes connected to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Media outlets from across the globe suffer through crowded press conferences to discover insight from the world’s most prolific cleaning crews.

So cleaning is obviously not the most intriguing element of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but maintaining sanitary conditions is essential to creating a welcoming environment for visitors. Alexander Schless from Hako-Asia - the company contracted to supply cleaning equipment for the 2004 Athens Games - describes the logistical hurdles connected to the immaculate presentation of Olympic windows, swimming pools, stadiums, and public spaces: “During the games, only at night is there time to clean - and you certainly have to make sure that, whatever the conditions, all jobs get done.”

At the center of sanitation is the environment and the many concoctions used by janitorial staffs containing potentially hazardous chemicals. Luckily, Chicago based company PortionPac provides a balanced solution ensuring both maximum cleanliness and environmental caution.  PortionPac is not currently affiliated with Chicago2016, but the company’s existence demonstrates the eco-friendly solutions available in our backyard.

PortionPac Chemical Corporation started manufacturing concentrated cleaning solutions in 1964. The company examines the entire product life-cycle from production to storage to distribution and disposal. Some of the benefits devised in PortionPac’s 40+ years of operation include:

• Offering multi-purpose cleaning solutions capable of completing 80% of customers cleaning needs
• Customers reuse bottles and fill with concentrate from larger containers
• Replace harsh chemical with safer formulations
• Portioning is controlled to ensure proper product mixtures

Despite the recent “greenwashing” employed by many corporations, PortionPac has not emphasized the environmental aspects of their own washing solutions. COO Burt Klein explains the different customer-centric approach of the Chicago company, “Our response is education and longevity. With education the consumer is better able to make a good decision and with longevity we will outlast them because I don’t believe that Greenwashing is a sustainable way of doing business.”

PortionPac is a founding member of the Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance.