Sanitation sectors of both city and private establishments should not only consider the cleanliness factor when evaluating the performance of an applied cleaning method. The overall effect to the community, cleaners and environment should be addressed as well.
One of the cities that have this kind of comprehensive cleaning method evaluation is located in the Greater Toronto Area. However, this evaluation was not a result of careful planning but after an alarming air quality monitoring report where road dust was identified as a major contributor to air pollution.
One of the methods that should be closely monitored is road flushing. While it offers benefits, it can also harm the environment when overused. To ensure that this does not happen, its need or use should be carefully thought of. Here are a few of the things that should be considered before this method is used:
Amount of Water Used. In a major city in Ontario, the efficiency of street cleaning is measured not only according to visual cleanliness but also according to the overall environmental performance. Cleaning methods should be compared to the amount of resources they use to the amount of pollutant they reduce in the environment. Since water is a natural resource and is used in road flushing, the amount of water being used should not be excessive. And when not really needed, road flushing should not be done.
Type of Dirt Being Flushed. In the Greater Toronto Area, road flushing is oftentimes needed even when regenerative air sweepers are used. They are used as a fallback or second choice in cleaning when sweepers miss a spot of dirt on the road.
While this may be an easy method of dealing with back-jobs, the type of dirt or debris on the road should be considered. When they are toxic wastes such as oil or vehicle fuel spills, another pass of regenerative air sweepers should be the choice rather than road flushing. This is to avoid toxic wastes from getting into storm sewers and bodies of water.
Rainwater Basin or Sewer Cleaning. Washed down debris or dirt can be remedied once they are filtered in rainwater basins or sewers. This way, they don't end up in bodies of water where these sewers lead to. However, when the city does not include sewer cleaning in its sanitation programs, road flushing should be minimized or not enforced when harmful debris are still on the road.
Weather Condition. Washing out the road with water should be done only when needed. Summer days or similarly hot days require road flushing so dust control is not a problem in brushing roads. However, when the road is wet from rain or when there is a slight rain, flushers should not be used.
Type of Street Sweeping Vehicle Used. The latest type of street cleaning vehicles such as the regenerative air sweepers uses a breakthrough technology that minimizes the use of water. A high velocity air is used to loosen and pick up even packed down debris off the ground. So when these types of sweepers are already in use, road flushing vehicles should not be used anymore.
Aside from cleanliness, road cleaning programs and methods should be evaluated according to its total environmental performance. Specifically, these methods should be monitored as to how much of the natural resources they use compared to the amount of pollutants they reduce in the environment.
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