December 2020

About MEWA Textile Management MEWA has been providing full service service textiles since 1908 today MEWA supplies 45 locations from companies across Europe with work and protective clothing, cleaning cloths, oil collecting mats and floor mats – including care, maintenance, storage, logistics. In addition, occupational safety articles can be ordered. T he textile service provider MEWA has been committed to sustainability for more than 100 years. Its industrial cleaning cloths for workshops and production plants are high performers when it comes to sustainability. MEWA’s particularly durable cleaning cloths can be reused up to 50 times and are used by 2.7 million people daily worldwide; testimony to just how durable and sustainable they are. Ecological design Sustainable development is no longer reserved for pioneers of environmentally conscious concepts. Today, all sectors are making efforts in the field of environmental protection and economical use of raw materials. An example of this is Ford Motor company using coffee chaff waste from the roasting process of McDonald’s coffee beans for vehicle parts such as headlamp housing. The German company MEWA is also making its contribution with its circular economy. Sustainability and corporate responsibility are the cornerstones of its business strategy. In 1997, it became the first company in the industry to receive the international environmental certificate in accordance with the ISO 14001 standard. As a member of the European Textile Services Association (ETSA), it aims to make globalisation ecological too and focuses on saving raw materials and reducing environmental impact to an absolute minimum. Cleaning cloth – sustainability star The cleaning cloths from MEWA can be washed and reused up to 50 times and are a very green alternative to paper and other material cloths that end up in waste after a single use. MEWA’s environmental awareness starts with the production itself and it uses only recycled yarn. For example, the proportion of recycled material in the MEWATEX cleaning cloth is not less than 50% of the total volume. In addition, MEWA makes sure that the cardboard sleeves of the coil threads used in the manufacturing process are reusable, saving 21 tons of waste a year. More than 100 million new cleaning cloths are produced annually at the MEWA weaving mill in Immenhausen, Germany, creating some 72 tonnes of cotton floe waste a year. Instead of throwing it away, the lint is recycled into insulating material for the automotive industry. Dirt from the cleaning cloths is also properly recycled; MEWA processes a large part of the recycled oils under strict environmental conditions and reuses them to power their washing and drying plants. As a result, several million litres of waste are converted into energy every year. In addition, the sustainable MEWA Safety Containers SaCon for the transport and safe storage of cleaning cloths make a significant contribution to waste reduction. MEWA re-use principle MEWA cleaning wipes are only available through an end-to-end full- service leasing model. MEWA handles the pick-up and washing of the cloths and automatically replaces worn cloths with new one. This means that companies will always have the right amount of cleaning cloths for use. This circular model is economical and environmentally friendly, reducing waste and conserving valuable resources. 18 AFTERMARKET DECEMBER/JANUARY 2021 BUSINESS www.aftermarketonline.net MEWA CLEANING CLOTHS: STARS IN SUSTAINABILITY Cleaning specialists MEWA show how the now very current concept of sustainability has been in its make-up for over 100 years