Afonwen Laundry is committed to minimising its impact upon the environment. Linen hire and laundry provision is, by its very nature, a recycling business in that we are one of very few suppliers to the hotel industry that constantly collects, re-washes and returns the same product time and time again. In fact, we've been recycling linen since 1935, long before it was even fashionable to go green!
Afonwen is always looking for ways to improve and reduce its impact upon the environment.
- We've introduced a number of Heat Recovery initiatives, including recovering excess flash steam from our boilers, installing water heat recovery systems to allow us to capture heat out of the warm effluent we discharge to reheat the cold fresh water we have coming into our production facilities and help reduce overall energy consumption;
- We're operating a water recycling plant using Reverse Osmossis technology which allows us to recycle up to 60% of the mains water we use in our Cardiff production facility;
- We've installed the most energy efficient, gas driers available in the market to significantly reduce our gas consumption, especially when drying towels; and
- We operate a full chemical and biological water teatment plant in North Wales to treat our own effluent.
Our commitment to the environment does not stop there.
- We monitor and control, independently auditing every month the chemicals we use to ensure we only use what is essential to give a good service;
- We use modern, environmentally friendly, washing machines that minimise water consumption and achieve high quality wash cycles;
- We monitor religiously every week our energy consumption including gas, electricity and fuel for our distribution fleet, to ensure we are only consuming what we need;
- We've also installed tracker systems on all our HGV lorries to monitor route utilisation, efficiency levels and are adopting 'teardrop' boxes to improve fuel efficiency across our lorry fleet;
- And, of course, we are recycling everything that we can.
- As a recycling business, we are continously reviewing ways of reducing our impact, cutting costs and doing our bit to keep the planet in good shape for future generations to come.