Resource Conservation
The company’ s water-recycling system enables the reuse of virtually all wash water, with only roughly 2 % lost due to evaporation. Björkman says that loss is primarily supplemented by collected rainwater, rather than by drawing fresh water from the local publicly owned treatment works( POTW).
Above: Two tunnel washers at HandCraft Healthcare Linen & Uniform Specialists’ new plant in Martinsburg, WV. Higher-pressure,“ wide cake” tunnel presses have improved extraction, thus saving water and energy by reducing drying times.
Saving Water and Energy:
How Low Can You Go?
An overview of laundry resource conservation efforts that lower costs and benefit the environment
By Jack Morgan
For laundry operators, one source of good news is that saving water and energy— two of their most costly inputs— is a mutually reinforcing effort. In other words, if you invest in reusing or recycling water, you can usually capture the heat as well, thus saving on natural gas. The more you save on water, the more payback you get on natural gas.
Bullish on Björkmans
One company that’ s made significant strides in these areas is Hr Björkmans Entremattor, Arlöv, Sweden. Founded in 1993, this company achieved impressive results by pursuing a vision for resource circularity.“ We have developed our own patented water-recycling system, enabling us to reuse up to 98 % of our wash water,” says Carl-Johan Björkman, founder, managing director and CEO of Hr Björkmans, a mat-laundering specialist.“ Water recycling also helps us save energy,” he says.“ We wash our mats at 40 ° C( 104 ° F), and the recycled water maintains a temperature of around 30 ° C( 86 ° F), meaning that only an additional 10 ° C( 18 ° F) of heating is required.”
The company also discharges virtually no wastewater into the public sewage-treatment system. Hr Björkmans’ wastewater is purified in-house with the aid of biotechnological detergents that rely on naturally occurring microorganisms, rather than conventional chemicals. The same biological process is used to purify the company’ s wastewater. This allows recycled water to remain effective across multiple wash cycles. The biological detergents used for 90 % of mat washing reduce chemical residues in recycled water. The microorganisms in these detergents break down soil in the water. They also perform effectively at low temperatures, thus saving additional energy during washing.
The company uses rainwater captured from the roof of its laundry facilities to replenish this closed-loop system to make up for evaporation losses. This further reduces the company’ s dependence on freshwater supplies from the local POTW. Using this technology, Hr Björkmans estimates its yearly water savings at 16 million liters( 4.22 million gallons).
Savings Made Simple
Few companies have gone as far as Hr Björkmans to save water and energy, but that doesn’ t mean progress isn’ t happening elsewhere. Joe McKeown, COO for HandCraft Healthcare Linen & Uniform Specialists, Richmond, VA, credits the introduction, in the early 2000s, of both higher pressure( 55 Bar versus 28 Bar) and“ wide cake” 1.3-meter-wide presses( vs. 1 meter-wide) for pressing additional water out of“ cakes” of textiles due to its higher
20 Textile Services • May 2026