Washroom services are more than just rented textiles

Textile services include the rental and supply of hand towels for washrooms to provide comfortable, hygienic and ecological solutions for everyday hand hygiene.

Services tailored to the customer's specific needs

Textile rental companies also offer a variety of services as well as state-of-the-art accessories and equipment tailored to the customer's specific needs, including:

Delivering and collecting cotton hand towels, for comfortable, hygienic hand drying
Laundering and maintaining towels
State-of-the-art dispensers to supply each user with a clean portion of towel for individual use
Installing and maintaining accessories, including soap dispensers, air fresheners and feminine hygiene products on a regular basis.

A clean washroom gives visitors a positive impression of a company. Textile towel dispensers, in particular, allow public washrooms to be maintained as clean environments, as they are more hygienic, eliminate the unsightly waste often left by paper towels and do not create the noise disruptions of air dryers. Read more

Proper hand drying is essential to hand hygiene

Hand hygiene is the single most important measure to reduce the burden of healthcare-associated infections. To ensure a high level of hand hygiene, washrooms should be equipped with a hand-drying system which is effective and efficient in guaranteeing hand hygiene for every user, every time. Not only in high risk environments such as hospitals, elderly-care home or food preparation areas, but also in public washrooms.

In comparison to air, cotton is more hygienic

The Hjelt Institute of Hygiene and Microbiology (University of Helsinki) studied the effectiveness of four common hand-drying systems in terms of hand hygiene.

The results of the study are clear:

Cotton towels have proven more effective in reducing bacteria through the drying process than the two air dryers included in the study
Cotton and paper towels eliminate the highest number of bacteria from wet hands
The mechanical action of rubbing one´s hands with cotton or paper contributes to the effective removal of bacteria
Good hand hygiene involves both washing and drying hands.

In everyday life, however, we know that:

Only 5% of people using washrooms wash their hands long enough to kill the germs that cause infections*
33% of people do not use soap due to its drying effect on the skin*
10% of people don't wash their hands at all*.

(*Source: Borchgrevink et al. 2013, Journal of Environmental Health)

Cotton has better environmental credentials

An ETSA Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) shows that cotton towels, when compared to paper towels, are better for the environment:

Cotton uses up to 63% less energy than paper towels
Cotton generates 79% less waste than paper towels
Cotton generates 48% less greenhouse gases than paper towels.

In addition, cotton towels can be reused up to 100 times and require limited packaging materials, which contributes to their superior environmental performance.

Cotton towel dispensers are hygienic

Cotton towels in a dispenser are a hygienic and environmentally friendly way to dry hands in public washrooms. This is the conclusion of research carried out by the Hjelt Institute of the University of Helsinki in 2012. The study of the hygiene of dispensers confirms that cotton towels in a dispenser are the most hygienic solution for public washrooms. It shows that there is no multiplication of microbes on cotton towels, and that microbes from a used portion of cotton towel do not transfer to the rest of the cotton roll nor to the dispenser holding it.

Users prefer cotton

The vast majority of people use cotton towels to dry their hands at home. They appreciate cotton's comfort because it is the most natural means for drying hands. A soft smooth towel is pleasant to touch, less abrasive on the skin and encourages hand care.

Cotton towels are the obvious choice at home, while paper towels and air dryers are often their substitutes in public washrooms. However, finding a well-maintained dispenser with a fresh length of cotton towel ready for use in a public washroom, such as those provided by textile services companies, provides a familiar sense of well-being.