Whether you’re in the food and beverage, medical or the industrial industry, your uniforms are guaranteed to get messy. You’re in contact with a large range of products and contaminants all day and now you’ve got to figure out how to clean them off your uniform.
Should you make your staff responsible for the cleaning their own uniform? What if they don’t wash it right and bacteria multiplies and thus increases the potential of infection to others?
So how do you provide a more hygienic work environment? Outsource your laundry!
How is it more hygienic?
Regardless of the industry, staff are rarely taught how to properly wash their uniforms. Most individuals just throw their uniforms in with all their other laundry at home and turn on the machine. No special thought is given to disinfecting the uniform prior to the wash or even stain removal. Studies have found a significant presence of bacteria on the uniforms 48 hours after the shift ended. Thus the importance of washing your uniform correctly is crucial.
Most laundry cycles performed at home are done in a cold wash (around 30 degrees), due to cold washes being cheaper to run than hot washes. However, according to the NHS it is recommended that linen, underwear and other contaminated clothes should be washed at a minimum of 60 degrees to prevent any germs spreading. A good washing detergent is also required in addition to the hot wash, another measure which can not be guaranteed when asking staff to launder their uniforms at home.
It is also recommended that staff in industries with high contamination risks, e.g. the food and beverage industry and medical industry wash their uniforms after every shift. Research has shown that staff may not be able to do this due to the lack of uniforms available.
Be more environmentally friendly
There has been more and more focus on becoming more environmentally friendly in recent years. Increase your corporate social responsibility by outsourcing your laundry to a company that uses environmentally friendly equipment and incorporates going green into their services.
At Alsco, we’ve decreased the energy usage of our newest facilities by 63%. We’ve also researched and improved our water reuse systems where we now use up to 50% less water and 30% less chemicals.
Choosing Alsco means choosing a brighter, greener future for our environment. Not only that, it also means creating cleaner, healthier Australian workplaces.