UK-based Regenex has processed 500 tonnes of linen before its third birthday – saving 1,500 tonnes of carbon. The company claims to have developed new methods in stain removal that are now saving huge quantities of hospitality and healthcare textiles from rag or landfill. As a result of months of research and testing, these improvements will not only reduce the need for the manufacture of new linen, but will also save laundries and other customers thousands of pounds in top-up stock.
Based on these favourable outcomes, the company issued a White Paper – Love linen longer: A new innovation in cleaning, to maximise the life cycle of commercial linen – to stimulate discussion about the responsibilities of the laundry industry in sustaining the world’s resources. This ‘thought-provoking’ document is to promote more careful treatment of linen as a sure-fire way to make progress towards low carbon ideals.
Through a series of precise trials the processes used proved successful in around 75% of the most heavily-marked linen. The results have been independently monitored, for instance by Leeds University. The gentle, multi-bath treatment is based on opening fibres to lift blemishes.
The company’s Managing Director David Midgley states: “We formed the concept for Regenex in early 2017 and have developed things from there”.