Industrial laundry cuts a major resource cost simply by catching and using rainwater. The National environment fund (DBU) financed the project, and helped the

company to cut fresh water use by 22 %.

Coburger Handtuch & Matten-Service, located in Rödental, Germany is a laundry specializing in washing towels, doormats and mops. Laundry companies typically consume vast amounts of fresh water; about 5 % of total costs, according to some estimates. Coburger Handtuch & Matten-Service wanted to do something to tackle this cost and environmental burden.

A project financed by the German Federal Foundation for the Environment (DBU) helped to quantify the impact of using rainwater as an alternative to help the company reduce its overall water costs.

The project showed that rainwater collected from the roof (an area of 4 700 m2) could be filtered, chlorinated and effectively used to replace fresh water in the laundry process. In this case, about 3 160 m3 of rainwater per year can be collected and used for laundering, thus, reducing fresh water consumption by 22%.