Are the trash and recycling bins at your home or business dirty and smelly? How do you scrub them when the bottom is too deep to reach? Do you even want that contaminated water to make its way to Long Island Sound?
Jay Greco and Gary Fanali have paired up to start an eco-friendly trash bin cleaning service called Spotless Bins, with a website at SpotlessBinsCT.com.
The service relies on steam to clean, trading heat for chemicals without sacrificing strength.
“People who are cleaning their bins now are spraying Clorox or de-greasers” Fanali said. “It’s going down their driveways, into the catch basins and ultimately into the ocean. The products we use to clean the containers are biodegradable and eco-friendly.”
Last week Greco and Fanali brought their new truck to Holly Hill for a demonstration, cleaning and sanitizing the food scrap recycling bins. The food scrap recycling project has been a huge success at the dump, it can get smelly as the decomposing food oozes through the biodegradable bags.
Spotless Bins relies on two burners on the truck that heat water to 210° to kill bacteria inside the bins.
Greco and Fanali said it takes just one bag of trash containing common household items like tissues, napkins, diapers, eggs, raw meat, spoiled milk, and rotting produce to introduce harmful bacteria and germs, such as Salmonella, E coli, Norovirus and Listeria to the bins.
“It only takes hours for bacteria to multiply by the thousands. And, it only takes one single touch to potentially become infected,” Fanali said.
“It’s one thing to have a nice clean can, but it’s another to kill germs and bacteria. The 210° water takes care of germs and bacteria. You can’t do that at home.”
Gary Fanali, co-owner of Spotless Bins CT
Here’s how it works. Spotless Bins has a specialized truck that will come to your home or business.
Your bins are attached to a set of lifters.
After an initial spray with a wand, the bins are lifted and flipped upside down to be sprayed with streams of steam.
Lastly the bins are wiped down and sprayed with disinfectant-deodorizer.
Afterward, the water in the truck’s holding tank is brought to the Greenwich sewer plant and recycled.
Greco explained that the Greenwich sewer plant was happy to recycle the Spotless Bins water because the steam heat kills all the bacteria and germs.
“The water in the truck is actually considered ‘gray water,’ and it’s great water,” Greco said. “It has no bacteria in it. It has no chemicals in it. It’s really a clean water.”
Greco and Fanali hope that each new customer will represent a step toward cleaner oceans.
“I see people washing their bins, and who knows what kinds of products they’re buying at Home Depot or Lowe’s,” Fanali said. “I see it washing down the driveway and going into the catch basins and ultimately it winds up in Long Island Sound.”
“We’re the only company in Connecticut that does this. We’re starting here in Greenwich and will work our way up through Fairfield County,” Greco said. “We have one truck and hope to have a couple more.”
Fanali said he expects to build a significant clientele in the summer and primarily service restaurants in the winter.
The company offers one time, weekly, monthly, and bi-monthly cleaning services for residential and commercial customers.
More information is available on SpotlessBinsCT.com
For service call (203) 223-1727.
