Dr. ir . Henk Gooijer of the Dutch TKT institute explained the latest results of a study assigned by CINET and FTN on the effects of CO2 savings as a result of an intensified usage of textiles.
Sustainability is an important theme in society. Professional textile care is the sustainable option, as the professional washing process is more sustainable than domestic washing. Moreover textile service creates opportunities for a longer product life and creates better conditions for recycling. In this presentation, the focus is on the effect of extending the life of textiles on the sustainability of textile use. To illustrate this, the reduction in CO2 emissions and water consumption as a function of the number of washes has been calculated using the Ecotool for a number of representative textile products. It has been shown that very significant reductions in CO2 emissions and water consumption can be achieved by extending the current average life of textiles in the consumer market to the technical life.
Conclusions:
50% CO2 savings as a result of using garments twice as often as up till now, for instance using shirts 10 times stead of 5 times. A gigantic opportunity for the professional textile care industry, which comes on top of the 2- 3 times better performance of professional textile cleaning compared to domestic washing.
