CASE STUDY

A laundry driven by data and sustainability

Just imagine: your vision of the laundry business is that it can be carbon neutral. How do you achieve this while simultaneously balancing the commercial reality?

Read how English laundry Oxwash built a highly efficient new plant which showcases sustainability throughout.

The Oxwash Story

From its beginnings as a student start-up using an old bicycle for collection and delivery of student laundry, Oxwash’s big aim was to show what good could look like if you wanted to launder textiles with minimum environmental impact.

After realising that washing larger volumes was the way to make serious impact, in 2023 Oxwash made the switch from washing for a consumer base to washing for businesses.

Oxwash has generated huge interest in the market around its exciting approach to textile care in these times of big environmental questions. It has taken environmental concerns on board in a new way, looking at the science of the 9 environmental boundaries (do watch the David Attenborough report if you’re not familiar with this) and what good looks like for a laundry if you want to do it in a future-proofed way.

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The challenge: making a carbon-neutral, data-driven laundry

With a successful Series A funding round under its belt, Oxwash set out to build “Big Blue 1”, a state-of-the-art laundry facility in Swindon, UK. Positioned to serve the London market, the plant would be steam-free, data-powered, and designed to meet B Corp certification standards. The ultimate ambition: Net Zero.

In July 2024, Oxwash opened their brand new, highly efficient Swindon laundry. Focus on social and environmental performance was razor-sharp from the start, all while preparing to offer the highest wash quality to their healthcare and hospitality customers.

To achieve their ambition, Oxwash carefully considered every aspect of the process — from energy and water use to (micro)fibre filtration and waste heat recovery — ensuring every decision aligned with its environmental mission. With data underpinning everything.

Wientjens point-of-use AquaHeaters installed next to the tunnel washer.

Smart Choices:

tech-driven, eco-optimised

At Big Blue 1, process and equipment choices were determined to an important extent by Oxwash’s unremitting focus on environmental impact. From electric vehicles to drying systems, from organic textiles to rainwater harvesting, every business choice made by Oxwash includes sustainability as a key criterion.

Just considering the wash process, every system in the laundry is engineered for efficiency and sustainability:

Steam-Free Operation: Instead of using a traditional steam boiler, Oxwash choose 99% efficient, gas-fired water heaters.
Heat Recovery: Warm process water and ironer vent air are repurposed to preheat incoming water, reducing energy use.
Water Reuse: Up to 80% of water is recovered through advanced filtration and storage systems, with rainwater harvesting in development.
Microfibre Capture: Specialised filters to prevent microplastics from entering wastewater.
Low Impact Chemistry: Carefully selected chemicals minimise environmental harm while delivering hospital-grade hygiene.
Data-Enabled Operations: RFID tracking improves stock visibility for clients, while Oxwash’s IT platform, developed in-house, optimises load planning and equipment use.

The Solutions

Together with chemistry partner, Christeyns, Oxwash chose a starting set-up for its wash process as follows:

1 x Tunnel Batch Washer
1 x 70kg Washer Extractor
8 x 20kg Washer Extractors
Wientjens AquaHeater systems for steam-free water heating
Wientjens AquaBatch for filtration
Wientjens AquaEnergy and AquaVent systems for thermal storage and ironer ventilation heat recovery
Wientjens AquaDrain combined with Cleaner Seas Group technology to capture microplastics

Compact Wientjens AquaHeaters next to tunnel washer

Results: scaling sustainability

Richard Grew, Oxwash Projects Manager, explains that the team is growing by the day in their knowledge and understanding of both processes and equipment, of optimizing equipment running and understanding the maintenance needs. This is not surprising given the huge step from a small consumer-based laundry to a large scale commercial laundry set-up, a very different ball-game! Oxwash’s data-driven mindset helps here too.

Even with this in mind, Oxwash’s results are impressive indeed…

Today, Big Blue 1 processes around 50 tonnes of laundry per week — approximately 100,000 items — with ambitions to grow substantially. The plant serves a growing client base split roughly 70% hospitality and 30% healthcare, with hospitality expanding fastest.

Key outcomes so far include:

Carbon Neutral Operations: Big Blue 1 is already carbon neutral overall and has achieved net zero on Scope 1 and 2 emissions – a major milestone in an energy-intensive industry.
Energy Savings: Oxwash estimates it uses significantly less energy than a traditional commercial laundry.
Zero Microplastic Effluent: Microfibres are filtered out before wastewater is discharged.
Water Efficiency in Progress: Current overall water use is ~6 litres per kg of laundry, with further reductions expected as tunnel washer utilisation increases.
Scalable Systems: Automation and data tracking increase throughput while ensuring precision, hygiene, and transparency.

Additionally, Oxwash operates 24/7 when required, to fulfill their 48-hour delivery promise, the big challenge being London traffic.

The Oxwash team continues to refine maintenance schedules, address single points of failure, and improve energy recovery – especially in washer extractors, where further integration of heating systems is being explored. As production volumes grow, Oxwash will succeed in realising greater water efficiency and much higher energy recovery levels than at present. The ongoing transition to pull stock will further enable improved process efficiency.

Oxwash’s bold commitment to sustainability is clear. Moreover as clients increasingly value both performance and environmental responsibility, Oxwash is proving that you don’t have to choose between them.

Going forward

For Oxwash, Big Blue 1 is just the beginning. With plans to optimise drying processes using proprietary low-temperature tech, increase tunnel washer capacity, and implement full-scale rainwater harvesting, the company is pushing the boundaries of how sustainable an industrial laundry can be.

Dr. Kyle Grant, founder and CEO:

“As we expand our operations and push the boundaries of what’s possible in zero-impact textile aftercare, we’re proud to partner with Wientjens—an industry leader in innovative water and energy systems.

Brought into our operations through our collaboration with Christeyns, Wientjens’ equipment has quickly become a key component of our infrastructure. Their steam-free technology is especially critical, enabling us to eliminate the significant energy demands and emissions typically associated with traditional steam systems. By operating without steam, we’re not only improving safety and efficiency but also making a major step toward our carbon reduction goals.

In addition, Wientjens’ systems are fully IoT-enabled, providing real-time data on energy and water use, system performance, and predictive maintenance. This data empowers our engineering and operations teams to continuously optimise processes, reduce waste, and report environmental impact with unprecedented accuracy.

This partnership demonstrates the power of engineering innovation and shared environmental values. Together with Wientjens, we are building the future of laundry—cleaner, smarter, and truly sustainable"

At Wientjens, we take pride in being part of Oxwash’s continuing story of excellence.

Explore our full range of water and energy recycling products here.