As seen in The Pioneer Press, a Sun-Times publication.

River Grove School will start looking a little greener starting in May.

On May 10, the state's Green Cleaning School's Act goes into effect. The Act requires schools to use non-toxic, environmentally benign products whenever economically feasible.

The Act applies to a host of items including air fresheners, toilet paper, degreasers, chrome polish, floor finish and stripper, gum remover, graffiti remover, lime and scale remover, plastic bags, urinal deodorizers and equipment including vacuum cleaners, carpet cleans and floor buffers.

Districts will be allowed to use up their present supply of products before ordering new supplies.

If a school district wants to claim it is economically unfeasible to use non-toxic products, it will have to apply to the Illinois Green Government Coordinating Council. A claim, which has to be submitted annually, must include the price of the current cleaning product, the price of three comparable green cleaning products and the dilution factor of each product.

The Act, which was passed in February 2007, quotes the Environmental Protection Agency, which "estimates that human exposure to indoor air pollutants can be two to five times and up to 100 times higher than outdoor levels."

Superintendent Jon Bartelt said he's looking forward to seeing how the Act impacts River Grove School.

"This forces both school districts and the vendors that serve them to work toward (becoming environmentally friendly)," Bartelt said. "We'll always need clean facilities and vendors will always need to sell their products to maintain their profit."

He said he expect the changes to be largely invisible to staff and students. He said he isn't sure what financial impact the Act will have on the district, but doesn't expect prices to be "dramatically different."

In Leyden High School District 212, Superintendent Kathy Robbins said the district's maintenance and custodial staff "has done a good job of being aware of -- and ahead of -- the legislation.

"This year, as we've used up our current supplies of cleaning products and floor wax, we've been replacing them with 'green' supplies," Robbins said. "Going 'green' means we are changing all our hand soap dispensers since the 'green' containers don't fit the old dispensers. We are also changing our paper towel dispensers to accommodate rolls of towels versus single fold to save on waste.

Elmwood Park Community Unit School District 401 gave itself somewhat of a running start in complying with the new requirements.

"As of the beginning of the (2007-08) school year, we only had one product that didn't meet the new standards, and we've used that up," said Tom Zelek, the district's business manager.

Zelek estimated that supplies required for the new requirements likely will cost the district 1 to 2 percent more than previously-used supplies.

Illinois is the second state to require schools to use environmentally benign products. New York passed a similar law in September 2006.