ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

One of the most anticipated events of the Interclean Amsterdam exhibition - the Amsterdam Innovation Awards - will take place on the opening day of the show, next Tuesday. There, the category winners for 2022 will be announced, along with the overall winner.

An independent jury has selected the 12 finalists from 78 submissions across four categories.

The categories have been changed this year to reflect key trends and drivers in the cleaning sector. They are: Sustainability & Environment; Smart Technologies & Digitalisation; Workforce & Ergonomics; and Health & Hygiene.

Here are the final nominations:

Sustainability & Environment

Maya Professional Tools for EVERSEA Multipurpose Cloth - made with 30 per cent SEAQUAL YARN by processing PET from plastic bottles collected from coasts, beaches, seas and rivers.

Tork by Essity for Tork Biobased Heavy-Duty Cleaning Cloth - helps to lower the consumption of fossil-based materials, while improving cleaning efficiency.

Spectro for Ecodos Dosage Bottle - a dosing bottle which is 100 per cent made using a closed recycling cycle of plastic packaging.

Smart Technologies & Digitalisation

FHP Vileda for Swep Evidence System D - an advanced cleaning system which allows faster, more sustainable cleaning and, at the same time, indicates when the job has been done.

Lionsbot International for R3 Scrub - a cleaner's personal robot assistant which anyone can use anywhere.

Gaussian Robotics for Gaussian Scrubber 50 Pro - an AI-integrated commercial cleaning robot that supports automatic scrubbing, sweeping, mopping and sanitising.

Workforce & Ergonomics

Kärcher for BVL 5/1 Bp - the new BVL 5/1 Bp battery-operated ergonomic backpack vacuum cleaner made of innovative and ultralight EPP material.

RCM for Nexbot - an autonomous scrubber made to clean large spaces quickly with minimum environmental impact and increase cleaning profitability.

Arcora International for Arcora Pu-Pad Light - a floor cleaning pad for all water-resistant surfaces with an area coverage of 80,000 square metres.

Health & Hygiene

Alani Higiene Profesionalfor Coreless Centre Pull Paper Towel in Tad - a paper towel on a roll with consumption control and waste reduction.

Consensus Group for EnozoPRO - a spray bottle that turns tap water directly into aqueous ozone. It is non-toxic, sustainable, eco-friendly and contains no fragrances or dyes.

AR-CO Chimica for Aladin GT5 - the Aladin system is an automatic distributor of super concentrated products, providing ready-to-use solutions in the right quantities.

Robert Stelling, director of Interclean Global Events commented: "It is fantastic to see the industry has continued to innovate during the pandemic, has taken on such an important role and has demonstrated the important impact that cleaning has on a healthy and safe working and living environment."

Jury president and ECJ editor Michelle Marshall added: "So many of the products we have seen have been designed with sustainability in mind and we particularly noticed an increased awareness around the use of plastics - where they are sourced, how they have been produced and how they fit into the circular economy.

"We must also mention 'smart' solutions of course, as there are now so many innovations incorporating digital technology in all its forms, and we saw interesting developments there.

"In any cleaning operation however, people will continue to play a vital role so we were pleased to see the continuing development of more ergonomic, user-friendly manual tools that make the everyday cleaning jobs more manageable."

From the beginning of April until May 3 industry professionals will be able to vote for their own favourite innovation in the Visitors' Choice prize. The winner of that will also be announced on May 10.

Interclean Amsterdam takes place from May 10-13. For information about attending visit: www.intercleanshow.com/amsterdam