Sustainable laundry service for spa’s

Laundries are very often silent partners to the spa industry and not thought of as collaborative partners this is a missed opportunity when looking to improve sustainability. There are many areas that the correct laundry partner can contribute towards the sustainability goals of spa’s and their clients.

One very important area is the wash process itself. Most laundries use a chemical based wash process and heat the water to enable the chemicals to work. This is not necessary Ozone can be used as a detergent and disinfectant. There are many advantages to Ozone it reduces the need for heat in the water, therefore it reduces the environmental impact of the wash process and uses much less water than a conventional laundry processing.  Ozone also helps to protect the lifespan of the towels and other products. Avoiding the cost and environmental impact of buying new textiles sooner than should be necessary. The longer spa textiles last the better for the environment and the sustainability of the spa. But more importantly it saves the manufacture of these items, cotton production is one of the worst pollutants and uses high volumes of water second only to the oil industry. Cotton production also uses over 20,000 chemicals including pesticides, herbicides and sodium hypochlorite. Damaged and abused towels are an area no one likes to speak about but it does happen, often just due to staff not understanding that laundries can’t always remove marks.  If staff are trained to not use towels to clean with and understand the environmental cost of cotton. This is a small change that can make a huge difference both to the spa costs and help to reach sustainability goals. Your laundry provider should be able to help with this training.

Creating a circular supply chain with your laundry can also help to reduce the waste, most laundries work with cotton recycling companies. Asking the laundry to remove and recycle old and unusable items will avoid towels and other cotton products going to landfill.

Purchasing the best product for the Spas needs in the first place is also very important most laundries that work in this area will be able to advise.

The best advice is to find a laundry that is passionate about sustainability and work together to achieve the best results.

Contact Us if you would like to find out more about TDS Commercial’s Ozone Laundry process. Read more about sustainable spas on the Sustainable Spa Association website

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