Our man in the field, John Taylor, attended the show this year and here are some of his takeaways.
Spanning 12 halls, more than 900 exhibitors and 30,000-plus attendees from over 140 countries, Interclean Amsterdam 2026 confirmed its standing as the world’s most significant cleaning industry trade show. The scale alone was impressive, but the real story was in the trends shaping the sector’s future.
Sustainability dominated the floor, with dispensers manufactured from recycled drink bottles, compostable waste bins in every shape and colour and window cleaning equipment carrying sustainable certification all signalled that green credentials have shifted from point of difference to baseline expectation.
The scrubber’s moment
The innovation award went to the Dryfit scrubber, the same machine recognised at the 2025 Australian show. Its win reflected a broader trend on the floor, that compact upright scrubbers are everywhere, quietly challenging the dominance of the traditional mop and bucket. That said, improved string and Kentucky mops with updated buckets remain in production, suggesting the transition is gradual rather than absolute.
Robotics was another clear theme, as autonomous sweepers and floor scrubbers appeared on virtually every major manufacturer’s stand, many looking remarkably similar when lined up on the dedicated test track, a useful area for side-by-side comparison. The crowd favourite, though, was a humanoid robot greeting visitors and shaking hands: simple gestures underpinned by significant engineering.
Drones also featured prominently, demonstrating cleaning wind turbine blades, applying foam detergent to difficult-to-reach rooftops and washing high-level windows using pure water technology.
Australia had a visible presence, with Interclean Australia showcasing its iClean system and Bill Bassett presenting in one of the show’s specialist lecture theatres. TerraCycle from New Zealand exhibited in support of its European distributor, while Nilfisk marked 120 years of manufacturing.
The overriding impression was of an industry progressing steadily – sustainability now the norm, AI integrated across multiple product categories and labour-saving technology advancing on every front.
