Industrial Laundry’s Environmental Program Not All It Claims to Be

In a meeting with officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency late last year, representatives from the Textile Rental Services Association of America (TRSA) made a presentation in which data collected under the LaundryESP program were outlined. I know about this presentation because I obtained a copy through the Freedom of Information Act. If you are not aware of the LaundryESP program, it is a voluntary data-gathering effort initiated by the industrial laundry industry in 1999, right about the time EPA was considering establishment of pretreatment standards that would minimize the amount of harmful waste being discharged to public sources of drinking water in effluent discharged by industrial laundries.

Submitted data that were used to develop an industry “baseline” of water and energy levels consumed by the entire industry as well as wash chemical levels contained in laundry wastewater. Surveys were encouraged annually thereafter but, again, cooperation was completely voluntary as was participation by the facilities that submitted all data used to develop the baseline. For the full story see SMARTTalk February 2009 Ed. (403.62 kB) (membership required).