To make products lighter and easier to use, manufacturers have had to turn to new materials. Fifteen years ago, wood was a common feature of a variety of tools. Nearly every block and handle was made of a hardwood — first maple, then beech, birch or sycamore. That’s simply no longer the case anymore as the new preference is for lighter-weight tools. In fact, the majority of today’s mop handles are composed of plastic.

Although some cleaning purists did not adjust to the change initially, over time they realized the benefits of using plastic over wood. Plastic is lighter and easier to work with from a manufacturing standpoint. Compared to wood, the woods that are left for manufacturing crack easily and are not as easy to make a handle that end users feel comfortable using. Plastic also lends itself more easily to stylized, contoured designs. The material is also ideal for use in manufacturing color-coded tools, and most cleaning chemicals that are found in high uses in everyday cleaning operations also react well to plastic.