Pending the many "suggestions" we are receiving in view of energetically difficult periods, the most popular ones concern clothing and personal hygiene.
Shorter showers, preferably not daily, and laundry worn for longer to avoid frequent washing. I will gloss over the effectiveness of these precepts, and limit myself to introducing the topic.
Dry cleaning your laundry to “get by” by involving fewer washing machines also poses problems. Dry cleaning uses chemicals that can have catastrophic consequences on the environment and human health.
now Oxwash, a British startup that works for individuals and companies, has developed a complete system to improve sustainability dry cleaning and commercial laundry.
Oxwash, ozone traveling laundry
Oxwash's solution revolves around "wet" washing of laundry: a method that replaces aggressive solvents with biodegradable detergents. The company was founded in 2017 by scientist Kyle Grant and engineer Tom de Wilton, who were fed up with “unreliable” washing machines on the Oxford University campus.
In addition to sustainable detergents, the process also uses “ozone technology” to deodorize and sanitize laundry at lower temperatures than traditional commercial laundry processes. Procedure similar to that used in hospital sterilization and during space missions.
To further improve sustainability, Oxwash uses vans and electric bikes for order pickup and delivery. And not only. It also has robots that help with large-scale ironing and folding. The company recovers and recycles the water used, and filters over 95% of the microfibres dispersed during washing. An artificial intelligence (AI) identifies the clothes and materials and regulates the washing accordingly.
Clean laundry, low impact
According to the company, Oxwash's goal is to demonstrate that laundry can be done without a net impact on our ecosystems and communities. An enormous challenge, “but as engineers, scientists and human beings facing climate collapse,” the presentation reads, “we are determined to meet the challenge head on.”
As global energy prices soar and water shortages loom, innovators are increasingly looking to energy-intensive laundry washing as an industry in need of reform.
Oxwash is just a vanguard, the best is yet to come.
