Sustainable comfort at your feet
The ‘Stone’ bathmat is renewed
A bathmat means comfort. Soft and warm underneath your feet, where you can truly feel it: the bathroom. You take care of every little detail for the personal care of your guests and the high quality products that contribute to that. But research (enter link) shows that the average hotel guest also values sustainability. That is why Blycolin, ensuing the successful ‘New Atlantic’ terry cloth line, has also added recycled cotton to the luxurious ‘Stone’ bathmats in its linen rental collection.
Why is recycling textile so important?
Cotton is an important resource for hotel linen. To grow and produce one kilogram of cotton takes over 7,000 liters of water, which is almost eight times more than needed for a kilogram of grain. Cotton-producing countries therefore always face the danger of dehydration, which is disastrous for cotton farmers. In 2013, we went out to search for possibilities to recycle textile fibers. A process that has already been applied to our ‘New Atlantic’ terry cloth products for two years. Recently, we have started applying this process to our heavy quality ‘Stone’ bathmats as well. Cotton that is left over as cutting remnants at confection is refibered, by means of effilochage or unraveling, and respun into yarn. The resources are therefore handled very efficiently. The more sustainable ‘Stone’ bathmat contains 20% of this recycled material.
The 'Stone' bathmat is renewed
20% of recycled textile: is that all?
No, 20% of recycled material is not enough to turn the ‘Stone’ bathmat into an honest product. Effilochage may be an expensive word, it is also a lot of work. Who does the work, and under which circumstances, also determines whether it truly amounts to an honest product. We have found this out while making the ‘New Atlantic’ line more sustainable. When remarks were made about the working conditions during effilochage, we immediately put the project on hold. We did not proceed after we made very strict agreements with our suppliers based on an improvement plan. We wanted to be absolutely certain that there was no child labor, that men and women were remunerated equally and that safe working conditions and acceptable work hours were guaranteed.
Recycled textile: a lesser quality?
As we are not willing to make any sort of compromise when it comes to the quality of our products, we tend to take little chances when making our products more sustainable. The introduction of ‘New Atlantic’ was preceded by an extensive testing process that we executed in cooperation with five laundries and three customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. During that process, we looked at everything you and your guests will assess our products on: tensile strength, moisture absorbance, whiteness, washability and the customer’s comfort experience. Only when we were certain the material could pass every test with flying colors, we rolled out the first product line. With the solid results we have booked with that by now, we confidently decided to also make our luxurious bathmats more sustainable.
The renewed ‘Stone’ bathmat is of exactly the same quality and finish as the entrusted ‘Stone’ bathmat. With the same nice jacquard loom technique that makes a fine 3D effect: with a shaven stripe, but also the trusted all-over ‘Stone’ pattern. The only difference is the sustainable touch your customers will feel at their feet in the comfort of your bathroom.