Through this reportage, we are going to analyse products, services and washing solutions of the companies’ producing chemicals and detergents for the wide and varied laundry market, whether for the wet cleaning or dry cleaning, either for the industrial laundries or laundry shops. The activity range of these companies is that of supplying professional detergents for different fields, for offering to the laundries everything they need to maximize the washing results and for better controlling the consumption. We are talking about outstanding companies in the sectors of: wet cleaning, dry cleaning, technologies, hygiene and energy services.
Wool, silk, leather and technical fabrics, are all requiring a specific care, using suitable washing technologies. But the know-how in the laundry is also completed by having an in-depth knowledge of the fabrics and by the implementation of processes that are minimizing the impact on the environment. There are some trends that are emerging from the social dynamics and that are becoming operational practices for the companies, as well.
Today, the biggest target for the laundry, is the need to ensure the product safety and quality, while improving operational efficiency in the cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting processes. These are the big goals that need to be achieved in order to deal in a professional manner with the increasingly demands of the community.
Right from the opening, our company, as Marco Vaccari, the co-owner of Surfchimica and in charge of Export and Research says, “based its work on the slogan “experience and innovation at the service of the customer”. The logic that was followed for conceiving the products for the dry and wet cleaning, was to search for innovative raw materials, there, where the need for the best performance is combined with the strictest criteria of eco-sustainability. We have been closely following the appearance on the market of solvents as an alternative to the perchlorine, by developing products that can emphasize its cleaning qualities such as: additives, pre-stainers and stain removers, specific for hydrocarbon and solvents based on modified alcohols.
In the wet cleaning sector, we have focused on high performance products with low dosages, by improving the exclusive Aquafactor® wet cleaning system and introducing the NAT line, a complete range of products for professional washing based on a raw materials of vegetable origin formula, where the surfactant content is reduced to less than 1%. This makes these products quickly biodegradable and not dangerous at all.
The dramatic sanitary situation that we have been living with for almost two years, has led us towards the research and the development of sanitizing products with a strong action against the viruses, as the Surflean Hygienic Plus, associated with the Surflean Cleansing enzymatic detergent, and the Softlean Sense, a concentrated softener. The easy-to-read technical data sheets are clearly explaining how our products should be used. Our intention is to follow the customer’s needs, by combining the entrepreneurial logic with a strict concept of environmental protection adapted with today’s reality”.
“The chemicals are one of the main aspects on which the laundry service bases its quality, the efficient textile care and the guarantee of hygiene, that is so necessary (not only in a pandemic time, like the one that we are facing for the last two years).
The marketing perspectives of the chemical products in the laundry sector, are focused on the implementation of always greener compounds with the aim to better integrate into a circular logic economy without compromising the expected quality”, underlines Ruggero Sammarco, Technical and Business Development Supervisor at Christeyns Italia.
“There are various solutions with less impact on the environment, that give added value to the useful life of the product, and that are merging in different fields of application:
– Ecolabel and/or similar ISO 14024 certifications;
– less packaging;
– less water consumption.
Regarding the development of the chemical products, the core of the service provided, with less impact on the global disposal system, we cannot miss to mention all the possibilities offered by the lists of components banned by the various ISO 14024 labels. Almost all these labels are imposing significant raw materials limitations, such as those expressed in the requirements of the Nordic Swan detergents. These are raw materials that played a major role in the water pollution (groundwater, surface or marine). For at least ten years Christeyns has been offering a wide range of products and systems certified according to certain labels (Puresan EU Ecolabel, Nordic Swan labelled products, etc.), placing itself at the forefront in this context.
On the logistics front, the packaging is reduced by:
– the possibility of delivery in tanks, reducing the packaging to be
disposed;
– the possibility to return the empty packaging for being reused.
There are products conceived moreover as concentrated formulas, reducing like this the deliveries frequency, due to the lower dosages required for the applied washing cycles; but being more ecosustainable in the same time, with a reduced water consumption during the washing process and being more efficient by reducing the washing steps compared to the traditional processes, as well. All these aspects are leading towards the second power step designed by Christeyns – the system created for the reduction of the water consumption.
These products, combined with the most advanced applied knowledges, have led to the development of the washing and processing systems like Puresan or Compact, achieving significant water reductions up to 2 l/kg of fresh water for the continuous batch washers, or less than 10 l/kg for the washer extractors (without a recovery water tank).
Last but not least, even for the particular applications where it is still impossible to apply the Ecolabel certifications, there are major investments for bringing the chemicals industry into the future.
It is enough to consider, for example:
– the restore of the waterproof applications and/or the protection against chemical risks, according to EN 13034 standard, because of the use of the fluorocarbon molecules, whose production is highly polluting, has led towards the development of fluorine-free solutions as the Christeyns Aquablock Free product;
– the metalic complexing agents, EDTA are being replaced by other molecules that are same effective, but by far much more biodegradable.
“The role that a chemicals company should play nowadays is, above all, to bring eco-friendly products on the market,” says Matteo Casella, the CEO of Clean Pro. “I have always payed attention on the consequences that the laundry chemicals might have on the environment. Especially for those dedicated to the wet washing. As a professional “diver” in the sector, I am always in the front line regarding the environmental protection and I can
say that “our seas” are subjected to a very high risk, and we must all be aware of it”.
Within our CLEAN PRO products range, we have dedicated from the first beginning a products line with a low environmental impact, without modifying the economical profile. Thanks to the fact that we have commercial partners capable to develop chemical formulas that meet the fundamental requirements of both the market and the current laws. We have
also dedicated a lot of attention on this issue together with some of our customers. In collaboration with other companies of our group, we have led some of our customers to embrace the theme of eco-friendliness by reducing the paper consumption in the laundry and using eco-friendly products, not only for the washing but also for the daily cleaning”.
Combining efficiency and eco-sustainability in a single product? It is possible, replies Stenilio Morazzini, General Manager at Montega®: “it is a big challenge, but with the Montega® Deter Green P, a multi-certified and complete detergent in powder, that optimises the washing process and reduces the environmental impact, we are succeeding. Deter Green P has obtained the GOTS certification and it is on the 1st Level in the ZDHC Gateway with the PID P778HB61, and in addition it is certified Ecodesign ISO14006, all recognized not only nationally but also internationally. Deter Green P is a strong product of Montega®, periodically purchased by a very high percentage of industrial laundry customers, thanks to its exceptional washing performance even at much lower temperatures than the average use”, concludes Morazzini.
In this uncertain market context called VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity), Heart Italiana is looking forward to the future of the chemical products and detergents in the laundry, rethinking new products that are respecting two basic constraints: the safety and the sustainability, says Alessandro Martemucci, the Marketing Manager of Heart Italiana. The legal requirements lead us to develop always safer products for the operator and for the end user, trying to eliminate or to reduce the safety symbols.
At the same time, the Heart Italiana research and development branch, is constantly looking for new raw materials that should be noble and eco-sustainable, in order to offer to the market, a product that is able to solve the problems of hygiene and cleanliness, and help to minimise the energy resources used in the washing process. The Heart Italiana’s goal for 2030 is much more ambitious than being a “Cradle to Cradle” C2C company, like conceiving new products and new processes with a regenerative approach, or allowing production processes to assimilate used materials to natural elements that are transformed and regenerated at the end of their life cycle.
This can be translated into the development of high-performance products with the following characteristics: noble and vegetable raw materials, high concentration, minimal use of chemicals in the washing process, washing at low temperatures to reduce the costs and energy consumption, and finally, the high quality of the raw materials used to reduce the cost of the water waste, so that they can be reused in the washing process and therefore to regenerate the laundry’s production flow. An important but necessary challenge for the future of the sector, concludes Martemucci. •
By Marzio Nava
Detergo Magazine – Number 12, December 2021
