An environmental clean-up project that since 2006 has been implemented at Mexico's Environment Ministry building could be applied to all of the government's environment offices beginning in May. Vanesa Alfaro, spokeswoman for the privately-run Alfa Sol Group, in charge of sanitation for the Environment Ministry, explained to Tierramérica that the company uses non-acid, quickly degrading substances to clean the toilets, avoiding aggressive chemicals.

The initiative comes from the North American Environmental Cooperation Commission, promoted among the three partners: Canada, Mexico and United States.

“Green” cleaning is more expensive than traditional approaches, but if it becomes widespread through examples like this one, it would create a bigger market and bring down prices, say its promoters.