Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Disinfecting Your Garbage Can

Jan 28

The Problem

Germs are a part of our everyday lives. Germs are everywhere - in the air we breath, in the water we drink and on every surface we touch. Some of them are helpful, while others cause disease. Since early 2020, the general public has become more aware of germs than any other time in our history. We are social distancing, wearing masks, and isolating ourselves in ways we would never have dreamed of only a year ago.

Because they are everywhere, we know that there are germs on your garbage can–a lot of them! Studies have show that there may be more than 400 harmful germs per square inch lurking in your garbage can! Some of those germs can make you sick if you touch the garbage can and then touch your eyes, nose, or mouth before washing your hands.

It’s important to clean, sanitize and disinfect the surfaces in and around your home regularly to help prevent the spread of disease, including COVID-19. Here are the basics you need to know about cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting your garbage can in order to keep your family safe.

Definitions

What is the difference between cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting your garbage can?

Cleaning: removal, usually with detergent and water adherent visible soil and other debris from surfaces by a mechanical process that prepares the items for safe handling and/or further decontamination.

Cleaning removes dirt and debris. That’s it. The car wash blasts dirt off of your car, but doesn’t do anything about the germs on your bumper.

Sanitizing: Sanitizing is meant to reduce the amount of microscopic organisms–bacteria, fungi, and viruses–on surfaces. Sanitizing is especially important when surfaces come into contact with food. Sanitizing is also a function of many newer home appliances in the kitchen and laundry room. These appliances typically have a “sanitize” cycle.

Sanitizing reduces the amount of germs on surfaces. You sanitize clothes and dishes when you wash them. The EPA defines sanitizers as products that can kill at least 99.9% of germs on surfaces.

Disinfecting: Disinfecting is meant to kill and remove microscopic organisms on surfaces. Disinfecting is meant to help stop the spread of diseases and viruses like colds and flu. For the most protection, it is recommended to disinfect surfaces over sanitizing.

Disinfecting kills germs. You probably wouldn’t perform surgery on a disinfected surface, but disinfectants are stronger than sanitizers, killing 99.999% of germs on surfaces.

Bonus Definition–Sterilization: The state of being free from all living microorganisms. In practice, usually described as the probability of a microorganism surviving sterilization being one in one million. Sterilization refers to any process that removes, kills, or deactivates all forms of life. Sterilization is performed in a controlled environment, typically labs and hospitals and is not generally attainable outside those environments.

Recommendations

The CDC recommends routine cleaning and disinfection for households that have people isolated due to or suspected of having COVID-19. You should clean and disinfect your household’s frequently touched surfaces such as doorknobs, light switches, toilets, faucets, garbage cans, etc… with an EPA-registered disinfectant.

We Can Help!

We can’t clean your doorknobs, light switches, toilets, faucets, but TriStar Bin Cleaning offers solutions that eliminate the need to use harsh chemicals to clean and disinfect your garbage can. Our purpose-built bin cleaning truck accomplishes a level of safety in just seconds that is simply not possible when using household disinfectants. Our environmentally friendly process safely kills more than 99.999% of the harmful germs and bacteria living in your garbage cans without using hazardous cleaning agents. That is 100x more effective than household products, like bleach or detergents, that only kill 99.9%.

When you use harsh chemicals, you put yourself, your pets and the environment at risk. We use industrial-grade equipment to safely clean, sanitize, disinfect and deodorize your bins using only clean, high-pressure hot water while collecting and responsibly disposing of the waste.

After our hot water cleaning process is completed, the contact surfaces of the garage cans are dried with a clean towel, then electrostatically sprayed with Vital Oxide. Within seconds, Vital Oxide kills 99.999% of any remaining germs that may have survived the standard cleaning process. This includes SARS-CoV-2, the novel Coronavirus that causes COVID-19, H1N1; MRSA; Norovirus; HIV; Legionella; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Hepatitis A, B, and C; Ebola virus; and others.

Despite its effectiveness, Vital Oxide is an EPA-registered (No.: 82972-1) and FDA approved category 4 , no-rinse food-safe disinfectant. Category 4 means there are no exposure warnings required on the label. Nearly everything has some kind of exposure warning required on the label. Vital Oxide doesn't. Vital Oxide treatment is included with every TriStar cleaning at no additional charge. TriStar Bin Cleaning is the first in the industry to offer this important next step–Disinfection– in the bin cleaning process. You can read more about electrostatic spray and Vital Oxide here.

TriStar Bin Cleaning offers garbage can cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting options to fit every schedule and every budget. For more information on TriStar Bin Cleaning's services, please visit the Learn More page. To let the professionals handle your dirty garbage cans, book a cleaning now!

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