Working for a cleaner world, this is the goal for the different players in the textile care market. Seen from different angles, from the machinery manufacturers, detergents producers, but also from those companies making installations for the purification of the waste water. With this logic, the companies are manufacturing machines and products that allow a reduction in water and electricity consumption, but also a more economical dosage of the detergents. Shortly, a responsible use of resources, but also in some cases their reutilisation in the framework of the circular economy. Because the companies are thinking and producing more sustainable products, but their production processes are also moving on the same wavelength with the green methods that are not harming the environment. The health crisis emphasised more on sustainability, moreover because we have all acquired a higher awareness compared to the recent past. Let’s take a tour among our producers, starting from different perspectives.
We meet Marco Niccolini, the General Sales and Mkt Director of Renzacci SpA, for debating the bio dry-cleaning topic. He states, “as Renzacci, we have been proposing for some time now, and the results are speaking by themselves, a new dry-cleaning service for the machines using natural solvents and therefore as alternatives to perchloroethylene, that must be biodegradable, biocompatible and hypoallergenic. We are also having positive feedback from the commercial point of view, as the end user knows that the service offered by the laundry is carried out with techniques and machinery that are not only protecting the environment, but also taking care of the persons’ wellbeing. The bio dry-cleaning has the goal to provide a service to an informed customer.
Our experience is telling tells us that on one hand, there is a turnover growth due to an increased number of services, as the bio dry-cleaning allows treating a wider range of articles (shoes, bags, etc.), while on the other hand there are some costs savings, because these machines have lower running costs with a reduced consumption of water, energy and solvent, that can be translated in a better final price for the customer. Concerning the water washing machines, Renzacci is very satisfied developing the Oceano washing system and particularly the Oceano EcoCare, which allows a water recovery between 35% and 40%, for each washing cycle.
Oceano system goes beyond the traditional wet cleaning and combines it with the circular economy and sustainability. Concepts that the customer appreciates in its purchasing value scale. The consumer’s indifference curve in the purchasing process becomes an essential element. The Oceano system as a professional water- based washing system, combines perfectly with the bio dry-cleaning as conceived and implemented by Renzacci. These two systems are perfectly completing each other. The water-washing is complementary to the dry-cleaning and not a substitute,” reaffirms and concludes Marco Niccolini.
Having placed among our company’s “missions” to develop a sustainable chemistry, after noticing the always-increasing awareness of the public opinion regarding the need for preserving the environment, and looking forward to an EXPOdetergo International edition strongly focused on this topic, Marco Vaccari, the Export&Research manager of Surfchimica, says: “we have created, and we will increasingly develop, organic solutions for the laundry of the future. For the water-washing, we are working on an expansion of the NAT products line, for providing to the operator an increasingly complete range of products of vegetable origin, easily biodegradable and with no dangerous indications on the label.
Our attention then focused on the dry-cleaning where, as it is well known, we are proceeding with the replacement of perchlorine with alternative solvents. The main manufacturers of dry-cleaning machines offer multi-solvent solutions, favoring the use of natural solvents that combines the attention paid to the health of the operators with the modern technologies. We are ready to present an innovation in this area as well.
Finally, we also take care of the part related to the garments’ delivery where, in collaboration with our German partner hawo GmbH, we offer the innovative product ORGANIXtex, the fully compostable packaging solution tested with the main packaging machines currently existing on the market. “Aiming for a cleaner world” is a concept that has always belonged to the laundry world, but today it has a different meaning. “Clean” is not only a good washing result where the dirt is removed from the fabrics and the hygiene is ensured, but “clean” is synonymous with honesty and consciousness.
This is why IMESA SpA, as Carlo Miotto, at the helm of the company manufacturing washing machines in Cessalto (TV) states, has turned its knowledge into consciousness with the aim of offering organic laundry solutions to its customers. We are experiencing a time of worrying dryness and the water is an asset, unfortunately in scarcity in many parts of the world. For many years, our behaviour and our habits have taken the availability of this commodity for granted, often causing unnecessary waste. Today this is no longer acceptable, we must act, all of us, taking responsibility for making our best for a more conscious use.
Today IMESA is not only building and selling a wide range of washing machines, IMESA offers solutions including the entire washing process, from the mechanics to the chemistry and up to the electronic control, for allowing its customers to operate effectively through a conscious use of water, energy and detergents and limit their impact on the environment.
Targeted and calibrated washing cycles using OPTIWASH detergents, for monitoring and defining the consumption. Today we can choose to act with maturity, respecting the environment and avoiding damaging everything surrounding us. Today it is no longer acceptable to remain indifferent. The climate events and the science it is driving us towards an awareness that, in IMESA’s case, stems from over fifty years of washing, drying and ironing that we have no intention of wasting”.
“A conscious and responsible management of energy resources, a lower water consumption and less CO2 emissions, are an increasingly pressing priority, not only from an economical point of view but also and above all from an ethical one,” says Stenilio Morazzini, the CEO of Montega®, a company that deals particularly with special chemicals for detergents in the professional sector. “Everyone has a moral duty to strive for the preservation of the world we are living in, bringing solutions and innovations that reduce the environmental impact and the carbon footprint.
Montega® based for long time its production philosophy on eco friendly products and solutions, like the product range called My Ecosystem, a group of special chemicals for the laundry and textile dyeing, designed to achieve a higher product performance regarding the health, energy savings, water consumption, ozone layer protection, low CO2 emissions, highly biodegradable surfactants and so on. Also, part of the eco-friendly range of Montega®, are the products of the Institutional Nature range, characterised by surfactants of vegetable origin, fragrances classified as hypoallergenic and other carefully selected raw materials.
But Montega® has also developed new technological solutions designed to reduce the environmental impact, like Automatismo Eco, for an automated dosing with complete remote assistance, controlling by computer the entire washing process, using low temperatures. Montega® has obtained over the years, the ISO 14001:2015 certification for its environmental management system, and has validated its eco-friendly product range guidelines through the 14006:2011, guaranteeing an ongoing commitment to the research for green solutions”.
“Grandimpianti has been dealing with the professional water washing for 50 years now, and since its foundation in the early 1970s, it has always paid a great attention to the environment protection” we are talking about this with Gabriele Giotto, the company’s Sales and Product Manager. Respecting the environment in Grandimpianti’s logic, can be declined in the energy efficiency and the ecological impact of the equipment, and that is why we are able to develop highly innovative solutions and systems. We take the example of the ceramic fibre thermal insulation system on the ironing machines, that minimises the heat loss and ensures a maximum efficiency, developing a drying diagram which, in the case of the tumble dryers it is automatically adjusting the cycle intensity and duration according to the linen weight and humidity changes, saving energy (1kW/1Kg) or, the patented DWS dynamic weighing system for the washing machines.
The weighing system operates without loading cells and therefore it is not becoming unstable, it doesn’t have wearing out problems so it doesn’t need a special maintenance. Working in synergy with the Wavy control system, the system is able to dose water, energy and detergents according to the effective amount of loaded linen, with significant savings in terms of resources (up to 50% less water), cycle length (using less water means less time required for the water heating, water inlet and water drain) and mechanical action.
The DWS system (as standard feature on all the washing machines from 8 to 28 kg) exploits the communication between the inverter, the Wavy control system and the 3D sensor, to calculate the linen weight and to determine the right amount of necessary resources, including detergents, without the need to install autonomous dosing units (Wavy takes care of the pump management), positively influencing the ecological and economical balance of the entire laundry. Finally, the goal of minimising the impact of the equipment on the environment, has driven the company to select recyclable materials, ensuring a recyclability rate of up to 96%.
The last meeting is dedicated to the wastewater purification and we meet Fabia Segolini, the responsible for the Marketing Office, of S.T.A. Società Trattamento Acque, who illustrates the company profile, “the S.T.A. Group, operates in the water treatment sector and particularly in the design, the construction and the management of the plants: through the most modern technologies on the market and the research for the best technical, operational and economical solutions.
We are recommending ourselves as a qualified partner for the management and the service outsourcing, and the delegation of all corresponding activities; liquid waste disposal, discharge and environmental services managed by two non-dangerous liquid waste treatment platforms. We have never endorsed a technology rather than a treatment; each situation must be studied and requires a customised response and approach. Especially for the industrial laundries where the waste is characterised by a high content of surfactants that it is compromising the water quality at discharge. The S.T.A. method is giving the possibility to test the purification process starting with the internal lab analysis on the raw and clarified wastewater useful for identifying the best combination in terms of efficiency and operating costs.
The biological compartment is also designed thanks to the tests results on the field, that allow the correct setting of the processing cycles and define the necessity of dosing the nutrients or chemical products. At the end of the monitoring stage, the observed removal efficiency determines the wastewater treatment settings so that it makes it possible to achieve the expected results at discharge.
The customers that rely on S.T.A. can count on a customised consultancy service and tested solutions developed ad hoc based of verified data. In terms of resources, the clients can be ensured about the correct functioning of the treatment plant, guaranteeing the compliance with the discharge limits, a reduction in overall costs generated by the wastewater management, and the possibility of committing all the resources in their business activity,” concludes Fabia Segolini. •
By
Marzio Nava
Detergo Magazine – Number 7/8, July/August 2022
