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Cleaning Products Mandate Fails to Meet Deadlines

The bill would have required cities to use cleaning products from a state-developed list.
(Published Mar 17, 2010)

Legislation requiring all public buildings to be cleaned using only products approved as being "environmentally sensitive" is dead for now. The bill failed to meet legislative deadlines when it did not progress through all of the relevant policy committees in either the House or Senate by March 12.

SF 2593 (Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, DFL-Minneapolis)/HF 2968 (Rep. Sandra Peterson, DFL-New Hope) mandates that only those products specifically listed by the state as environmentally sensitive can be purchased or used in publicly owned or leased buildings unless the operator submits in writing to the Pollution Control Agency a claim that the requirement is “not economically feasible” with evidence as to why they are making that claim. That documentation would need to be renewed annually.

All cleaning supplies available through the state purchasing contract are already cleared by the state as being “environmentally preferred,” and cities can already elect to use that mechanism to purchase their cleaning supplies. Therefore, the League's position is that no new program, task force, or mandate is needed.

The problem is that many of the supplies needed by cities are for spaces that are not open to the public and have industrial operations, like vehicle maintenance facilities, airports, water and drinking water facilities, and other city utility operations. Hospitals and nursing homes have additional health and safety requirements.

Furthermore, cities often contract their cleaning services and do not have direct control over what specific chemicals are used by the vendor. A private vendor does not have access to the state purchase system.

Instead of creating new mandates on all operations of local government, the League believes that more effort should be made to provide information on the benefits of the products and of how cities can take advantage of that purchasing option.

History of the issue
This issue was first proposed two years ago, but only included schools in the mandate. This version reaches much further at a time when the available resources of cities are more strained than ever.

This bill is supported by environmental organizations and a labor union that represents some janitorial staff. It is currently opposed by organizations representing cities, counties, schools, and businesses, including several businesses whose products are approved for sale under the state purchasing contract as being environmentally preferred.

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