Heidi Wilcox: Hi, my name is Heidi Wilcox from the Toxic Use Reduction Institute Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Today, we are talking about spot and stain removal from carpet using green cleaning methods. Now I am going to talk about retail green cleaners when the do-it-yourself recipes may not work on stain and many of them are certified or recognized by green program such as Green Seal, the EPA Design for the Environment, EcoLogo, and then performing staining by The Carpet and Rug Institute.

They can be surfactants, detergents, they can be used to lift off stains or pop them off from the fibers or they can dissolve the dirt. They can be removed with the bloating or extraction process. Scientific proof of how they work can be found in the recognition and the Green Certification process that these products have to go through when they want to sign out for these programs and also the Carpet and Rug Institute program that looks at these products is heavily based in performance.

The limitations to these products can be that if you have a very heavy stained area they can possibly not work, because they are built and formulated not to be highly toxic and harsh. Another instances when you have bleached or taken out the color of your carpet, you may need to call a local carpet expert who is well-versed in restoration. Next up is Allen to talk about green cleaning tools.