Articles

ABCO Cleaning Products

Categories: ISSA Member Spotlight

A business with a commitment to the community and the environment has become a priority for most customers.

ABCO is an eco-friendly, family-owned company that manufactures exceptional quality cleaning products for its customers without compromising the environment.

Simple beginnings

In 1979, Carlos Albir founded ABCO Cleaning Products in Miami with less than five employees, carefully constructing mops and brooms by hand, one at a time.

In the decades since, ABCO has grown steadily and now offers a complete and diverse portfolio of cleaning tools for use across various industries, including food service, janitorial sanitation, retail, grocery, and more. ABCO’s focus on innovative, sustainable manufacturing is one reason this ISSA member company has become an industry leader.

Caring for the planet

Over the last four decades, ABCO has continually looked for ways to improve social and environmental responsibility to benefit its customers, communities, and the planet. The company is especially dedicated to implementing green manufacturing processes. Headquartered in Miami, ABCO opened a manufacturing facility in Honduras in the 1980s to create a more vertically integrated supply chain and employ sustainable manufacturing techniques.

At its facility in Choloma, Honduras, ABCO repurposes millions of pounds of clothing scrap that would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerators to produce the Green Seal® certified Natura yarn line of wet and dry mops. The popular line is the first mop product to earn the Green Seal® GS-20 Certification for Environmental Innovation. In 2020 alone, ABCO diverted ten million pounds of garment scrap from landfills to produce these products.

ABCO is also focused on combatting the problem of plastic waste. Another ABCO facility in Choloma has injection-molding capabilities to help turn plastic waste into manufacturing materials for cleaning tools. For example, the company’s Natura line of brooms and brushes recover plastic bottles and bottle caps to keep even more waste out of landfills. In 2020, ABCO removed more than two million plastic bottles from landfills through this production process. Each Natura broom repurposes eight plastic bottles and about 250 bottle caps. Additionally, all ABCO packaging is constructed from recycled materials. Its Brik-Pak™ packaging uses up to 70% less cardboard and plastic when compared to standard packaging, thereby helping customers curb waste.

ABCO accomplishes all of this under an increasingly green roof. Its Honduras plant is powered in part by more than one megawatt of solar energy generated from more than 2,000 solar panels on its grounds. While renewable energy is often a reach for many developing countries, Honduras is a leader in Central America when it comes to solar energy. Companies like ABCO that are focused on reducing the overall impact of their manufacturing can help protect the environment and the people who live in these areas.

Caring for people

As a minority-owned business, ABCO understands it takes a range of voices and perspectives to succeed in the competitive market for cleaning tools. Thus, ABCO is committed to welcoming employees across many different backgrounds and experiences, a majority of whom primarily speak Spanish and many who are bilingual.

Prioritizing employee health and wellbeing has also been a long-time focus for ABCO. As part of its commitment to corporate social responsibility, ABCO offers a free medical clinic to its manufacturing workers and their families. In 2020, the company subsidized 53,000 meals for its staff and continues to provide free education, breakfast, lunch, and uniforms to about 700 students living in extreme poverty in Central America.

Additionally, the company contributes to philanthropic causes that support access to clean water, education, and childhood cancer research in Honduras and neighboring Nicaragua. It supports cancer treatment through the Dani Girl Foundation in both countries based on product sales in the United States.

Trending upward

While green cleaning is a growing trend in the industry, the term is often misunderstood or too narrow in focus. Effective and responsible cleaning involves incorporating sustainability at every level of the process, from sourcing to manufacturing to product application. ABCO’s vertically integrated process helps the company maintain environmentally friendly practices throughout the entire supply chain. This gives facility managers and building service contractors greater transparency about and confidence in their cleaning program’s overall impact on the planet.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought an increased demand for frequent cleaning and disinfecting while protecting worker and occupant safety. This requires cleaning tools and processes designed to avoid slips, trips, and falls, as well as cleaning solutions without ingredients that could present health hazards for some building occupants. ABCO is well-positioned to deliver these supplies to customers in the years to come as demand for high-frequency cleaning remains strong.

ABCO is also poised to grow its industry presence through its membership in ISSA, which it joined in 1986. Attending ISSA Show North America has been imperative in amplifying the company’s visibility in the industry. It remains an essential platform for ABCO to demonstrate its leadership on environmental, social, and economic sustainability. ABCO and ISSA will be two key players in the cleaning industry moving forward, as sustainable cleaning tools play a growing role in maintaining safe and hygienic facilities worldwide.

For more information about ABCO Cleaning Products, visit www.abcoproducts.com.

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