TRSA’s founding in 1912 as the Ohio Linen Supply Association grew out of a response by laundry operators to a regulatory issue related to reusable towels that threatened to put companies out of business.
 
In the years that followed, TRSA would face a series of similar regulatory challenges, including wastewater pretreatment requirements in the early 1970s and proposed “categorical pretreatment standards” for wastewater from 1997-’99.
 
In each of these cases, laundry operators closed ranks to advocate for their businesses and to work cooperatively with government officials to find mutually agreeable solutions. In the first ...