KELOWNA, B.C. January 04, 2018 — Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service recently opened a new regional healthcare laundry facility designed to support the Interior Health Authority. Built in just seven months, the newest Ecotex plant is located in the City of Kelowna and will serve the region’s 83 Hospitals and Long Term Care Facilities. This new plant was designed to improve redundancy and reliability, brings industry best practices for infection prevention, and increases sustainability.
Interior Health anticipates savings of approximately $35 million over the 20-year partnership with Ecotex. Outsourcing this service will enable IH to focus on patient care as well as complete upgrades and expansion to emergency rooms and operating facilities. Ecotex Vice President, Bryan Bartsch said, “We are pleased with our new long-term partnership with Interior Health. We have built an amazing new plant that will provide reliable laundry services to the region’s hospitals and care home for many years. Ecotex has designed this laundry program with sustainability and innovation in mind.”
Ecotex is an established industry leader in environmental sustainability and is certified Clean Green® for its class leading environmental laundry practices. The Kelowna plant is equipped with the most efficient laundry equipment including advanced heat recovery systems for preheating fresh water and water reuse systems. Our new energy efficient facility is expected reduce the environmental footprint by more than 60%, reducing our demand for electricity, natural gas, and fresh water. Further, we have reduced the use of plastics offering reusable cart covers and innovative new launderable packaging. With our large offsite regional laundry plant, we have both the physical space and the scale to collect and recycle 100% of the plastic soiled linen bags, previously part of the Interior Health’s waste stream. We expect to recycle over 100 semi-truck loads of compressed plastic bags in our new “closed loop bag recycling system.”
Ecotex also brings new high quality reusable linens for surgical, bed protection, and PPE applications. In partnership with Interior Health, we will target the ‘disposable’ product categories, replacing some items with new high-quality reusable alternatives. Our plan is to make a massive positive impact on the system sustainability, which will be a model for other health systems to follow in the future.
Ecotex is a family owned and operated company, we have been providing commercial laundry services since 1959. Over the years our company has developed a strong reputation providing hospitals with high quality services, unmatched reliability, and offering unmatched healthcare laundry expertise. Ecotex operates hygienically clean-certified linen processing facilities in Canada and the United States. Learn more at SmarterLinenSolutions.com
