A company has developed an innovative “dry cleaning” technology that avoids the need to use water and detergents to clean-up spills on hospital and commercial floors.
Edinburgh-based For Spills Ltd. has agreed contracts with McDonalds, Tesco, and the NHS to use its patented Greasebuster, Forspills and Bioperl+ products and is now eyeing a major expansion in the UK and overseas.
Its Bioperl+ body-fluid spill kit is the first one-solution for all spills, developed in response to an invitation from the NHS.
Health procurement chiefs wanted a more efficient method of dealing with biohazardous spills – a major contributor to healthcare associated infections (HCAIs), which cost the NHS around £3billion-a-year – than anything that was available on the market.
For Spill’s patented kit includes a biocidal formulation that absorbs and disinfects affected areas at the same time, and a pop-up card dustpan that removes plastics from the process.
Greasebuster is a patented dry powder that is food-safe and environmentally friendly, providing a quicker, safer and more effective solution to degrease floors, compared with traditional mopping with water and detergent method.
Using Health and Safety Executive (HSE) approved slip-test measurements, the dry cleaning products take floor surfaces from dangerous red and amber levels, directly to green on the HSE Slip Test Graph in a matter of minutes, saving companies and organisations time and money spent using traditional wet cleaning methods.
Analysis conducted by the company for a major food-brand client shows that using Greasebuster could save 100million litres of fresh water annually across all of its UK restaurants.
For Spills’ spill and leak kits have significantly improved Tesco operations for dealing with customer spills and chiller cabinet leaks better. The company has already sold more than 2.6million units to the supermarket chain and last year it won a multi-year supply contract.
Developed through in-house research and development, all three products use a unique dry-cleaning method, offering a more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally conscious approach to floor cleaning across various industries.
After raising seed investment of £1.5million, the company explored diverse particle sizes and properties of absorbent materials to maximise liquid, semi-liquid, oil and grease absorption and removal.
The team identified a particular particle range of a unique material that effectively strips oil and grease from surfaces. The company subsequently secured a worldwide patent which covers the application of this particle range for removing oil and grease from floors.
Having secured contracts with market leaders in its three target markets – supermarkets, restaurants and hospitals – the company is confident its technology is set to revolutionise cleaning procedures in commercial and public service settings.
David Lilly, an inventor and entrepreneur who founded For Spills in 2017, said: “Our products address multiple problems that have long impacted conventional spill and grease management, that rely heavily on water, detergents, and disposable materials and which never worked that well.
“As well as making spills in high traffic areas instantly safer, they speed up the cleaning process in simpler and more cost effective ways.
“Absorbing spills and removing slip hazards are incredibly important from a health, safety and hygiene perspective in food service sectors and one of our products also absorbs and disinfects bio-hazardous spills, which is essential in clinical settings.
“By eliminating water use, minimising use of chemicals, and reducing the generation of plastic waste materials, the products have a lower CO2eq footprint and are also far less energy intensive than existing cleaning methods, which is an essential consideration for companies and organisations in managing their environmental impact.”
Lilly added: “The problem of dealing with spills is a huge one for the supermarkets who don’t use our products, which routinely pay out several millions of pounds per year in damages to customers who have suffered slips and falls.
