ASTM Approves TRSA Green Laundry Standard

ASTM International, a globally recognized leader in the development and delivery of international voluntary consensus standards, has published its TRSA-initiated Standard Practice for Sustainable Laundry Best Management Practices, recognizing key criteria for TRSA’s Clean Green certification as universal indicators of maximum sustainability in commercial laundry work.

The new ASTM standard codifies the best management practices in the TRSA Clean Green standard as the structural, nonstructural and managerial techniques that are most effective and practical for a laundry to achieve green objectives (such as preventing or minimizing pollution), while making optimum use of natural resources.

Vetted by ASTM for 19 months, the organization’s acceptance of the TRSA proposal reflects “our industry’s commitment to sustainability and dedication to further reducing our carbon footprint and enhancing our environmental stewardship,” said TRSA President and CEO Joseph Ricci. “The ASTM standard, implemented through TRSA’s Clean Green certification, encourages every laundry facility to adopt sustainable, green best management practices.”

A total of 37companies in the U.S. and Canada operating a combined 78 laundryprocessing plants are currently certified Clean Green, with five more applications (combining for 19 plants) pending to receive the designation.  Attaining the certification requires a textile services company to be evaluated under TRSA thresholds for water and energy consumption as well as the ASTM standard.

Representing more textile services facilities than any other business association worldwide, TRSA is uniquely qualified to certify textile services. Launched in 2012, Clean Green was developed over a 5-year period, incorporating the expertise of member companies that account for more than 90% of the North American market, drawing on TRSA’s century-long history of unparalleled research and professional education.

Decades of cooperation between TRSA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspired Clean Green. The agency has longacknowledged TRSA members as sustainability leaders, based on 15 years of voluntary reporting to the agency on energy- and water-conservation performance and repeated cooperation on wastewater treatment, wash chemistry and air quality issues. In 2008, TRSA was named a Champion in EPA’s Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative.

The best management practices from the TRSA program incorporated in the ASTM standard include:

• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by capturing heat from the wastewater stream
• Conserving with a water-reuse system
• Using environmentally friendly detergents
• Filtering wastewater before discharging it to the sewer
• Solar energy and energy-efficient lighting
• Recycling programs
• Re-routing trucks to save vehicle fuel

TRSA also plans to submit its Hygienically Clean certification for adoption as an ASTM standard.