Hidden But Impactful Textile Services Industry Gets CBS National Spotlight
A little-known service that improves the daily quality of life of most Americans will be highlighted Sunday night by the appearance of textile service executive Ronald Croatti on CBS-TV’s “Undercover Boss” (9 p. m. ET).
Alexandria, VA (Vocus) January 6, 2011
A little-known service that improves the daily quality of life of most Americans will be highlighted Sunday night by the appearance of textile service executive Ronald Croatti on CBS-TV’s “Undercover Boss” (9 p. m. ET).
Although not glamorous, the textile services industry employs roughly 200,000 people providing a wide range of services touching consumers’ professional and personal lives. “The industry is all around you but goes highly unrecognized,” states Joseph Ricci, president, Textile Rental Services Association of America (TRSA), which represents nearly all these American commercial laundries and is the recognized leader in efforts to improve the industry’s sustainability and worker safety. “When you patronize a service business with uniformed personnel, use linen at a restaurant, stay in a hotel or hospital, or walk across a mat in any commercial building, you are touched by the textile services community.”
Croatti is CEO of UniFirst Corp., Wilmington, Mass., a leader in the industry’s uniform rental segment. Similar to most commercial laundries, Croatti’s company began as a small, family-owned business more than 60 years ago. While several large national chains control a significant market share today, the vast majority of these U. S. laundries are independently operated family-owned businesses that serve their local community’s restaurant, manufacturing, service, hospitality and healthcare markets with customized, personal service.
For most Americans watching “Undercover Boss” it will be their first view inside a commercial laundry, which typically process between 10 million and 25 million pounds of uniforms, table linens, bed sheets, towels and more every year. The industry serves hundreds of thousands of business customers and millions of Americans every day. Commercial laundries are the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly means of processing tons of laundry.
“The reusable textile services business is the original green industry,” said Ricci. “Commercial laundries reuse linen instead of filing landfills with disposable alternatives and continually discover new, innovative means to reduce energy consumption and recycle water. Our huge economies of scale allow laundries to use about two-thirds less water, energy and detergent than alternatives, such as washing at home, while hygienically cleaning textile products, improving disease control and reducing contamination.”
Referring to the “Undercover Boss” segment on Croatti, Ricci said, “Viewers will be surprised at the scope and scale of a textile service laundry. It looks like a manufacturing plant with little similarity to home or coin-operated equipment. Commercial textile service machinery is more efficient, often highly automated and capable of washing up to 4,000 pounds an hour. That is the equivalent of handling an entire neighborhood’s laundry in a few minutes.”
TRSA estimates that roughly 22 million people or 17 percent of the U. S. workforce currently wear laundered rental uniforms. Among wearers are nearly 3 million workers in restaurants (cooks, chefs, food preparers and servers, wait staffs) and almost 1.5 million in healthcare facilities (nurses, aides, orderlies, attendants). These garments are in addition to the linens (such as bed sheets, towels, tablecloths and napkins) the industry provides to these businesses.
TRSA’s leadership and focus on improving worker safety and increasing sustainability has directly led to significant reductions in recordable injuries and illnesses—down 50 percent since 2005—and resource use—almost 30 percent less in water and 20 percent less in energy per pound of laundry. Such gains have occurred because “TRSA members collaborate and share information that leads to adoption of proven policies and procedures that improve safety performance and reduce their facilities’ environmental impact,” Ricci said.
About the Textile Rental Services Association of America
Based in Alexandria, Va., TRSA represents a $16-billion industry of companies that employ nearly 200,000 people at more than 1,500 facilities nationwide. These companies provide laundered textiles and other products and services that help businesses project a clean and attractive public image. The industry reaches every major business and industrial region, Congressional district and city in the country. Most Americans benefit at least once a week from the cleanliness and safety provided by the industry—through its laundering and delivery of reusable linens, uniforms, towels, mats and other products for the healthcare, hospitality and industrial/manufacturing sectors. TRSA member companies’ services minimize environmental impacts on air, water and solid waste disposal while reducing costs for millions of customers.
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