Choose the Right Wiper!

Protect The Environment

Consider the Impact of Rental Shop Towels on Water Resources.

The U.S. EPA says industrial laundries discharge more than 13 million pounds of hazardous contaminants into the public watertreatment system every year¹ – and 80% of that comes from the waste water of laundered shop towels¹.

The contaminants include lead, toluene, xylene, zinc, and other heavy metals. These heavy metals have been known to cause cancer or kill aquatic life⁷.

Industrial Wipers have an Insignificant Impact on Landfills.

Industrial Wipers contribute an insignificant one-tenth of one percent of the nation’s land-filled waste². So, if you picture landfills overflowing with Industrial Wipers, think again!

Rental shop towels actually contribute 30% more waste, per thousand towels, to landfills than nonwoven Industrial Wipers3, according to an EPA study conducted by Lockheed Martin Environmental Services as the chart illustrates.

Improve Safety

Caundered Rental Shop Towels May Conceal Potential Dangers.

California State Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (DCompton) introduced a bill requiring suppliers of laundered shop towels to affix a warning label alerting users that the towel may have been in contact with hazardous materials. After introducing the bill, Dymally said in a statement in the Los Angeles Sentinel, that what is “troubling” is that the cloth towels are “typically contaminated by one customer, laundered, and returned to a different customer whose unsuspecting workers believe they are using clean towels to wipe their hands, arms and faces.”⁶

Metal shavings from lathing operations can injure faces and hands, resulting in lost work time.⁵

Residual oils, greases and heavy metals can endanger employee health.⁵

Rental Shop Towels Waiting to be Laundered Can Pose an Invisible Threat.

Federal EPA regulations provide a clear, national policy for handling and disposing of used Industrial Wipers. But Shop Towels are subject to a wide variety of confusing — and sometimes conflicting — state and ocal
rules.
Rental Shop Towels waiting to be laundered are often stored in nylon bags supplied by the launderer. This method of storage can be a violation of OSHA and/or DOT hazardous materials transportation regulations.