Hello all.
I recently lead training at our facility on our Glass & Brittle Plastic Policy and Breakage Procedure. It went well (I can animate a great powerpoint presentation).
Anyway, a supervisor asked me what to do with brooms used after cleaning up broken glass. In our procedure, we list supplies as brooms, dustpans, brushes, shop vac, towels, shoe-covers, and cut-proof gloves. The instruction says to dispose of all items used in cleanup but the shop vac (only to dispose of the shop vac filter). So the supervisor was asking if the brooms and brush should also be thrown away, because that seems wasteful.
We asked the Ops Manager (who is also our SQF Practitioner), and he asked me to find out if we should only use the shop vac (and then I'd write a procedure on how to clean it after glass cleanup) or if we should continue using the brooms as well (and then I'd write an additional procedure on how to clean the brush/broom after using it to clean up glass). Either way, it appears that I'm writing a procedure on how to clean cleaning equipment.
So, my question is, does anyone have a better way to cleanup broken glass? Or do you have a procedure or method for cleaning equipment like brooms and vacuums that have been used to cleanup glass (ie, ways to clean the equipment to ensure that no glass remains stuck in bristles or hoses on brooms/vacuums)?
Background info: We stretch-blow high-heat-set plastic bottles and jars, and sometimes the heater lamp in the machine breaks. They usually break cleanly, not into many pieces, and there is a very low risk of it getting into a product because of where they're located in the machine. We've never had product contamination due to broken glass from the heater lamp.
Thank you!
-Christina