Setting the new standards for laundry safety

TSA and De Montfort University announce new laundry hygiene protocols.

Laundering textiles plays an important role in maintaining hygienic cleanliness but is particularly sensitive in settings like food production and healthcare. Following a collaborative research project between the Textile Services Association and De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) to establish a hygiene protocol test for laundries, the two organisations have announced the results, with the aim to help guarantee laundry is cleaned hygienically.

The study was run by Professor Katie Laird, a microbiologist at DMU. Professor Laird and her research team have extensive experience in studying healthcare textiles, publishing papers that demonstrated how long bacteria can survive on clothing, and wash processes that can decontaminate laundry, among others.

The primary focus of this research was centred on creating a testing method to determine the ability of any laundry process to disinfect textile items. However, if the project is to be successful, it cannot stop at just the results but must spearhead a major shift in global healthcare laundering.

Currently, a home washing machine used by a ward nurse for their hospital uniform is benchmarked differently from an industrial washing process used for hospital bed linen. The results of this project give us the ability to compare “apples with apples”.

However, at the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the temporary emphasis of the research project switched to determine whether Coronavirus could survive on and be transmitted by textiles before the project team could get back to the main research objectives.

Professor Laird and her team were able to determine that human models of SARS-CoV-2 could survive on textiles for up to 48 hours. The research also inferred that if the laundry was washed at 40°C and above in a typical wash programme, no trace of the virus was being found in the resultant laundry load. This was good news for anyone involved in managing hygiene in textiles. Furthermore it also prevented a pointless increase in the industry’s carbon footprint, by making initial demands for 90⁰C washes unnecessary.

Following this the focus of the research returned to developing test protocols for all laundry processes over 60⁰C, ensuring that bacteria and viruses are being killed by the wash process. The resulting protocol is now being proposed for adoption by laundries that clean textiles for hospitals. Meanwhile, TSA and DMU will be continuing their collaboration to understand the needs of other healthcare-related sectors, such as care homes to help improve standards.

“As many members of the TSA provide laundry services for the healthcare sector it is vital that we support them to ensure they are attaining the highest possible standards,” says David Stevens, chief executive officer of the TSA. “This study has already delivered amazing results and a robust procedure for ensuring laundry safety, and we will continue to support future research.” 

Professor Laird is certain about the importance of the collaboration between DMU and the TSA. “We have worked together to create an internationally recognised protocol for standardising the assessment of the decontamination of laundry,” she says. “It’s important progress for the laundry industry and the next phase of research will be equally exciting for other sectors.”

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either via email or phone: 

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Christeyns renews laundry sponsorship for Bantams

01 August 2022

Hygiene specialist Christeyns has extended its laundry sponsorship with Bradford City AFC.

The laundry chemicals specialist has renewed its laundry sponsorship deal now set to run until the end of the 2022/23 season, helping the club save thousands of pounds in laundry supplies.

At their University of Bradford Stadium home, on Valley Parade, Bradford City is home to over 150 players, incorporating the reserves, the development squad, the Academy as well as the first team. With several versions of the club strip, including home, away and training, there are over 210 sets of kit to wash in a week, not to mention towels and physiotherapy blankets.

Michael Shackleton, Commercial Manager at Bradford City said: “We would like to thank Christeyns for their continued generosity and support. The laundry sponsorship has been a real benefit to the club, not only with superbly clean kit but helping us save on energy and water usage too. “

The laundry operates at least six days a week for seven hours a day. Keeping the kit pitch perfect is not an easy job and top quality, tried and tested detergents are essential to keep things running smoothly.

Justin Kerslake, Operations Director Christeyns said: “We are delighted to continue our involvement with Bradford City and hope that it will be a successful next season for all the squads. It’s a pleasure to play our part in making sure all the players look their best.”

Founded in 1903 and pioneers of professional association football in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the Bantams’ stadium seats over 25,000 spectators and boasts over 14,000 season-ticket holders.

For further information visit:

www.christeyns.com

Healthcare laundries plan major sustainability push: ‘everybody does it, or it doesn’t work’

Initiative to cover everything from energy saving technology to creating a circular economy

The laundry industry is gearing up to implement a major sustainability drive, working in conjunction with specialist consultancy Grain Sustainability. The initiative was unveiled at the Textile Services Association (TSA) Spring Conference, where members enthusiastically bought into the concept.

With the button pushed, Grain is now undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the laundry industry through research, surveys and interviews, including its suppliers and its customers, with the aim of presenting TSA members with a series of objectives and an ambitious sustainability roadmap.

“We need to understand where we can improve,” says Shyju Skariah, director of programmes and projects at the TSA. In fact, the laundry industry already has an enviable record on sustainability. By its nature the service it provides is circular, since it is about reusing textiles and thus avoiding disposable products. In addition, the industry committed to making a 25% reduction in gas and electricity consumption between 2012 and 2021. “It was great to reach that target, but the hard work begins now,” says Skariah. “We need to look at new areas, such as investment in highly efficient industrial heat pump systems.”

A key area of sustainability will be an increased focus on circularity. “Each year UK industries, such as hospitality, healthcare and manufacturing, source 7,000 tonnes of textiles which are then cleaned and processed by commercial laundries,” says Skariah. “We know what happens at ‘end of life’ to less than half of this volume – not much of which goes for long life recycling. There is still a big gap when it comes to understanding the journey of our textile products. We need to make sure that most of the individual components of these 7,000 tonnes are being reused, recycled or turned into something productive. Cotton for example is an easily recyclable material, however separating zippers and reflective tapes from PPE garments is a much more demanding process. We cannot begin to make any lasting changes until everyone in the value chain is actively involved.”

Christoph Geppert heads the Grain team helping the TSA. “Circularity is more than tracking, reusing and recycling,” he says. “It means looking at the entire value chain, from growing the cotton and transport to optimising end of life solutions. We have to educate laundries, their suppliers and their customers to understand the complexity of textiles, to de-commoditise them. A single kilo of cotton textile can take thousands of litres of water to make. Meanwhile thousands of tonnes of cotton go to waste every year. That’s unsustainable.”

Commercial laundries won’t be able to realise the circularity vision on their own. Skariah says, “As an example, when sourcing textiles, their longevity and recyclability need to be key specification criteria. We all have to understand the process, and work with our customers and the textile supply chain. If we don’t cooperate, we won’t make it. “Everybody does it, or it doesn’t work.”

Working together with the TSA and its members, it will take Grain around six months to complete the initial assessment of the laundry industry, to structure the tailormade approach for the sustainability strategy and to prepare a detailed implementation plan. The implementation plan is laid out over the next years, defining short term, medium term and long term goals. “The sustainability plan will set us on the journey that will make a real difference,” says Skariah.

For more information on Grain Sustainability, click here.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either via email or phone: 

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Global Brand Lindström Is Now Diversifying Into The Healthcare Sector To Combat HCAIs

18 July 2022

The importance of an effective, efficient commercial laundry service in the healthcare sector cannot be overlooked when it comes to managing productivity and infection control.

The UK Healthcare System

The UK is lucky enough to have a free publicly funded healthcare system the National Health System (NHS). This is funded by general taxation and around 18% of a citizen’s income tax goes towards healthcare. According to the World Health Organization, government funding covers 85% of healthcare expenditure in the UK. The remaining 15% is covered by the private sector.

In 2020, the total healthcare expenditure was £257.6 billion, equating to £3,840 per person. This equates to 12% of the overall gross domestic product (GDP). This makes the UK one of the largest spenders on healthcare in the EU/EEA/Switzerland in terms of GDP percentage. As of 1st May 2022, there have been 61,654,788 patients registered at GP practices in England. Furthermore, the UK also has a growing private healthcare sector that is still much smaller than the public sector.

The UK’s health care system is one of the most efficient in the world, according to a study of seven industrialised countries. The Commonwealth Fund report looked at five areas of performance – quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and healthy lives. The Netherlands ranked first overall, closely followed by the UK and Australia. The UK performed well when it came to the quality of care and access to care. The UK also ranked first in efficiency, which was measured by examining total national spending on healthcare as a percentage, as well as the amount spent on healthcare administration and insurance.

To read the full article, please click here!

To find out more about Lindström, please visit https://lindstromgroup.com/uk/.

Independent newspaper supports TSA strategy on reusable PPE

It ‘ticked all the boxes’ – better for the UK, better for the environment – so why did the government award £hundreds of millions in contracts for single-use PPE instead?

Throughout the pandemic the TSA campaigned for the use of reusable PPE instead of disposable gowns. Now The Independent newspaper has taken up the cause, publishing an article on 11th July that underlines not only how much money could have been saved on PPE, but also how many workers could have been taken off furlough had the TSA’s advice been followed. In addition, it points out that reusable PPE has a much lower carbon footprint and would have been a far greener and sustainable option.

The TSA, the Textile Services Association, represents commercial laundries in the UK.

Under the headline, ‘Government ‘wasted’ more than £800million choosing single-use PPE over greener alternative,’ The Independent lambasts the decisions during the pandemic. It points out that analysis commissioned by the Cabinet Office itself underlined how much greener the multi-use alternative would have been. The analysis said that the carbon output associated with disposable gowns is 1,164 percent larger than a multi-use gown.

David Stevens, CEO of the TSA, is quoted in the article as saying, “Looking at the numbers, you can’t say this [multi-use PPE] wasn’t a much better solution. It’s half the money, a 1,000 percent less carbon footprint, [and it’s] much more robust. It’s all onshore, good for the UK, made in Britain. There’s not a box it doesn’t tick.”

Independent Image

The TSA took part in discussions with officials in the Cabinet Office, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS Improvement. The Association understands the strategy was elevated to ministers, despite which it was never acted upon. The TSA says it suspects that the single-use gown strategy was adopted because it proved more lucrative for companies with personal links to the government. Comments on the Indie’s website suggest many people agree.

Read The Independent’s article here.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either via email or phone: 

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Laundry Cost Index: 2022/2023 FYQ1

Laundry Cost Index

Please see our latest published Laundry Cost Index for 2022/2023 FYQ1 below:

Latest Laundry Cost Index

Please see the Previous Annual Increases below for comparison:

The Full Report
Annual Increase
Laundry Cost Index 2021/2022 FYQ4
20.13%%
Laundry Cost Index 2021/2022 FYQ3
9.70%
Laundry Cost Index 2021/2022 FYQ2
5.92%
Laundry Cost Index 2021/2022 FYQ1
3.26%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ4
1.43%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ3
2.00%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ2
1.64%
Laundry Cost Index 2020/2021 FYQ1
2.02%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ4
2.73%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ3
1.75%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ2
2.95%
Laundry Cost Index 2019/2020 FYQ1
4.00%
Previous Laundry Cost Indices

If you have any queries or would like any further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

T: +44 (0)20 3151 5600
E: tsa@tsa-uk.org

Update from the TSA

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Verdict on laundry industry: good, but room for improvement

Laundry Industry Culture Study shows employees think 80% of industry’s values are healthy

It’s an industry that stands behind just about every sector of the UK’s economy – and yet, for many, it’s invisible.  Without commercial laundries, 90% of hotels with more than ten bedrooms would shut within three days, and 90% of hospitals would be forced to close in one day.  Manufacturing, food processing, the pharmaceutical industry – all rely on a professional laundry service.  So the health of the industry is vital to UK PLC.  Which is why the Textile Service Association (TSA), which represents the laundry industry, undertook a comprehensive survey to find out how employees feel about their sector, and what state its cultural health is in. 

The TSA worked on The Laundry Industry Culture Study 2022 in partnership with the specialist consultancy Brands with Values.  The study used the Values Culture Decoder, a scientifically-led, values-based assessment tool.  It breaks down results by age, tenure, ethnicity, company size and sexual orientation and covers values and categories such as safety, authority, success, pleasure and community.  Over 500 people took part in the survey. 

So how did the laundry industry do?  Overall, the results are very positive, with 80% of values assessed being healthy.  The study showed that ‘community’ is the most important value to employees, and that they appreciate a culture that is successful, honest and respectful.  The top three personal values selected across different job roles are very similar, indicating that, regardless of job title, the same values are important.  Community was in everyone’s top three, with various combinations of tradition, safety and success filling the other top two places.  The top three ‘personal value’ words were honest, friendly and loyal.

However, the study also highlighted areas where the industry needs to improve.  The top unhealthy values highlighted were ‘demanding’ and ‘long hours’.  These were most often mentioned by supervisors, production managers, drivers and engineers.  While the results covering ‘belonging,’ asking whether employees felt welcomed, accepted and part of their organisation, were positive at 61%, TSA believes there is still room for improvement.   

“Clearly these are some of the areas we need to focus on,” says David Stevens, CEO of the TSA.  “The whole point of this study is to help our industry leaders understand what matters to their individual employees the most, and what needs to be changed or nurtured.

“This is even more relevant in the current climate, where recruiting people and retaining them is increasingly difficult.  We hope the survey will also raise the profile of our ‘invisible’ industry, attracting new people, since it underlines what a great work environment we can offer, and the wide range of career opportunities here.”

Brands with Values was able to benchmark the results against a similar survey it carried out with CBI members covering a variety of UK PLCs and, overall, the laundry industry’s study is healthier.

“I’d like to thank the 500 plus people who took part in the survey,” says Stevens.  “We are delighted that the results are very positive, and that the industry comes out with a really good score, but there’s no resting on laurels.  The insights are hugely valuable, now we need to dissect them and get to work to make our industry the best it can be.”

A copy of the Laundry Industry Culture Study 2022 is available to download here.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either via email or phone: 

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CLEAN attains DVSA Earned Recognition Status

30 May 2022

CLEAN is proud to officially become an ‘exemplar’ transport operator having been accredited on the DVSA’s highly prestigious Earned Recognition Scheme.

The Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) Earned Recognition scheme is a voluntary scheme for all vehicle operators who can demonstrate a strong track record of compliance and adherence to standards. Operators must be able to prove that they have robust systems and processes that promote effective and proactive transport management. DVSA earned recognition operators regularly share performance information with the DVSA in the form of scheduled reporting. Once successfully accepted into the scheme, these operators enjoy the benefit of a reduced burden of enforcement because the DVSA know that they are safe and compliant.

All transport operators who successfully achieve DVSA Earned Recognition status possess a proven culture of compliance. By allowing DVSA to remotely monitor compliance systems, checks can be carried out which will provide the assurance and confidence that the operator is effectively managing the transport operation and functioning in a compliant manner. In exchange, these operators may benefit from a reduced number of inconvenient and costly roadside checks and visits from enforcement officers thereby reducing the administrative burden of regulation on those who, like CLEAN achieve high levels of compliance.


Peter Cox, Head of Transport at CLEAN, said: “I’m delighted to announce our achievement in securing the ‘DVSA Earned Recognition’ accreditation. I am pleased to say that our focus on and high level of compliance, investment in appropriate IT technologies, ongoing training programme, collaborate culture hard work has really paid off. The scheme will allow us to demonstrate to customers, stakeholders and partners the excellent standards we have adopted here at CLEAN.”


He went on to say “The ‘DVSA Earned Recognition’ accreditation is another positive endorsement of our transport operation following the achievement of FORS and PRIM accreditations and a RoSPA Fleet Safety Gold Award. It’s further strengthened our focus on compliance and demonstrates that overall road safety is paramount for us. I would like to thanks to each and every member of the transport team here at CLEAN who have all played their part in securing this accreditation.”


This scheme ensures that compliant operators with DVSA Earned Recognition status obtain best business value from the enforcement regime and creates a model that will drive up compliance and enable others to aspire to. It also enables DVSA to divert its resource to target the seriously and serially non-compliant where the risks to road safety are highest.

To find out more about CLEAN, please visit www.cleanservices.co.uk or follow their updates on Twitter @cleanlinenltd.

We need to talk about laundries

TSA Roadshow – confirmed dates and your invitation to attend

Everyone involved in the commercial laundry industry is invited to the TSA Roadshow events.  They will be an informal forum, an open evening where businesses can network and find out about the latest ideas, over drinks and a buffet. 

There are three Roadshows confirmed, in Scotland, London and Birmingham.  All are open to both TSA members and non-members – indeed, the TSA is keen to talk to laundries who are not yet members, to get their input on the current state of the market. 

“After two crushing years we’ve learned a lot about what the industry needs,” says David Stevens, CEO of the TSA.  “Now it’s about surviving and building a new, more robust business model for the future.  That’s what the Roadshow is all about – what do we need to do to ensure profitability and a happy, secure workforce?  That’s why we want as many people to come long as possible, so as to get as many ideas and points of view as we can.

“They will be informal and informative, a relaxed environment where the industry can really talk.”

The Roadshows are also an opportunity to meet the TSA team, to chat to them about issues they may be able to help with, and find out more about the work they are doing in areas such as sustainability, diversity, standards, research and government lobbying.

All begin at 6.30pm with a reception followed by a brief introduction and a short presentation from an industry speaker.  The first one, on June 21, is at voco Grand Central, Glasgow, where Scott Inglis, commercial director of Fishers Services Ltd will lead the conversation on ‘Doing laundry in Scotland.’  Then on 19 July the London venue is One Kew Road, with Joseph Ricci, president and CEO of TRSA (the American Textile Rental Service Association) will share his experience as ‘It’s been tough for all of us,’ and he’ll look at how the world’s largest market is surviving.  The Birmingham Roadshow is on 13 October, with the venue and speaker currently being finalised. 

“We urge everyone to come along, and to encourage colleagues in the industry to join in too,” says Stevens.  “It’s a chance to have your say in what really matters.” 

All the TSA Roadshows are free to attend, but tickets should be booked in advance.  To register, contact the TSA on 020 3151 5600 or tsa@tsa-uk.org.  Alternatively, click here to book online. Please click here for more details of the event.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either via email or phone: 

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