PISCATAWAY, NJ— Meritex LLC, a Hilton Hotels subsidiary, is saving a significant amount of water in its laundry operation as a result of a laundry water recycle system installed at its plant here last January.
The 100,000-square-foot Meritex facility here services 10 hotels in New Jersey and New York City, including all of the Hilton Hotel properties in New York, the Waldorf=Astoria and The Plaza.
This large, centralized facility offers advantages that a smaller on-premise laundry cannot, according to Graham Ward, general manager of Meritex. “There are economies of scale because of our size, especially when it comes to purchasing power. In addition to that, we are laundry people, not hotel people, and have a lot of experience,” Ward said.
The laundry and its staff of 150 employees processes more than 32 million pounds of laundry annually, Ward noted.
Equipment at the Meritex plant “is not conventional,” he added. It includes three continuous batch washers, also known as tunnel washers; 12 200-pound dryers; eight flatwork ironers; and eight towel folders.
In 2003, Meritex management realized that it had to make some changes to prepare for future growth at the facility, which was opened in 1998. The volume of linens being processed had increased but the facility had reached its capacity limit of sewer discharge, according to Ward.
In assessing the various options available to proceed with a five-year growth strategy, Ward weighed capital costs; disruption to production; return on investment; and future growth potential.
There were also environmental issues to consider due to water shortages within the state of New Jersey. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection was evaluating large water users, specifically those using more than 100,000 gallons per day, for potential fines if water use was deemed excessive.
One option was to increase sewer capacity by replacing the existing six-inch sewer discharge line with an eight-inch line but it was determined to be too expensive as it would have cost millions of dollars.
The other option and the one that was chosen was to recycle the laundry wastewater. Many laundry facilities recycle some of their wastewater, usually the rinse water, and reuse it in other washing cycles. In so doing, it is possible to cut water usage by 20% to 30%.
The continuous batch washers used at the Meritex facility already reused the rinse water in the washing process. While a typical laundry averages about three gallons of water used per pound of linens washed, Meritex processes more than 100,000 pounds of linens per day, using 125,000 gallons of water, or only 1.29 gallons per pound of linens.
Ward was faced with the challenge of finding a system to reduce water usage further by recycling already recycled water. He decided to install a closed loop laundry wastewater recycle system by AquaRecycle. The system takes all of the wastewater and through filtration cleans and disinfects the wastewater so it can be used again.
In the first nine months of use, the system has helped Meritex achieve a huge reduction in gallons used per pound of laundry.
“It’s important to note that we are recycling 73% of the water that can be recycled. We can’t recycle all of the water, for example, the water from the boilers would cause stains [in the laundry processed]and the water from the cooling systems,” Ward said.
All together, the system is recycling more than three million gallons per month.
Meritex has also had a 15.5% decrease in overall gas usage (including dryers) with the recycled water.
As for disadvantages with the recycling system, “there really aren’t any. There is a little bit of maintenance required, but we knew there would be. We’re happy with the system,” Ward said.
New washing equipment is currently being installed as part of an expansion plan to increase production at the facility by as much as 20% over the next 12 months. The equipment includes three conventional 450-pound washers.
“We’re expanding our service. Right now we’re mostly doing sheets, towels, pillowcases and food and beverage linens. In the future, we’ll also be processing duvets, mattress pads and shower curtains,” Ward said.
