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GreenEarth Cleaning LLC has signed on Wotek Corporation as its Master Licensor for India and the Middle East. Wotek, headquartered in Piscataway, New Jersey will license GreenEarth’s patented dry cleaning process to hotels and progressive operators in the dry cleaning markets in the Middle East and India. In partnering with the world’s largest brand of environmentally friendly dry cleaning, Wotek positions itself as the exclusive future friendly solution provider to the hotel and dry cleaning markets in these countries. Wotek is an engineering company that exports and services drycleaning and laundry brands such as Union, Unimac, Multimatic, Lapauw, Hoffman, Chicago, Sidi and White Conveyors. The unique fabric care advantages of GreenEarth’s environmentally safe liquid silicone process and available alternatives were key reasons for Wotek partnering with GreenEarth. Tim Maxwell, President, GreenEarth Cleaning and Hari Bhimineni, Divisional Manager (H E Division), Wotek FZE, talk about the GreenEarth concept and their partnership in the Middle East.
The GreenEarth concept
GreenEarth Cleaning is a unique, silicone-based dry cleaning technology that is better for clothes, people and the planet. Fabrics love GreenEarth because it isn’t harsh like petrochemical solvents. It uses pure liquid silicone. Silicone is made from sand, or silica, one of the earth’s oldest and most abundant resources and is a REMARKABLY gentle yet effective solution for dry cleaning. GreenEarth treats garments like a mineral bath, helping to not just clean but rejuvenate them. Fabrics feel soft and supple again, silky and smooth to the touch. GreenEarth offers many environmental and customer benefits over perc and hydrocarbon solvents. In the environment, silicone simply returns to the three natural elements it is made from: sand (SiO2) and trace amounts of water and CO2. It does not contaminate the air, water or soil. Customers also love that GreenEarth is completely odor-less, non-allergenic and non-irritating. GreenEarth silicone is so safe you could rub it on your skin. In fact you probably already do. The silicone used in the GreenEarth Cleaning process is widely used as a base ingredient in shampoos, conditioners, lotions and other personal care products.
Advantages of GreenEarth
GreenEarth is the gentlest, most effective cleaning method for the widest range of garments. Its gentle advantage stems from the characteristics of silicone for both low Kauri-Butonal Value (KBV) and low surface tension. High KBV is a measure of solvent aggressiveness and the most commonly accepted indicator of the potential for dye migration, the loss of plasticizers and resulting garment damage.
Perc has a KBV of 90 whereas GreenEarth has a KBV < 20. High surface tension results in greater wear and tear on fabric fibers during the cleaning process. GreenEarth’s surface tension is 17 dynes per centimeter; significantly lower than water (72 dyn/cm) or perc (32 dyn/cm). Unlike perc, which chemically interacts with and alters textile fibers during the cleaning process, GreenEarth acts as an inert carrier of detergent and soils to and from garments without compromising the integrity of the textile fibers themselves. Low surface tension makes it better able to get between the dirt and the fabric or natural skin and move the dirt without damaging the textile or skin itself.
Benefits of GreenEarth/Wotek partnership to the hospitality and laundry sectors
The Middle East laundry and textile services market is highly competitive and success will follow those who lead the way in raising the bar to the highest international standards and practices. As a Master Licensor licensing the patented GreenEarth Cleaning process and marks in the Middle East, Wotek will enable hotels and progressive dry cleaning operators to satisfy their customers’ unmet wants and needs in fabricare and environment safety. With over 30 years of experience exporting and servicing well-known dry cleaning and laundry brands, Wotek brings a great deal of trusted expertise to the region’s hospitality and laundry industries. Wotek also has the strong sales support and service network necessary to bring GreenEarth Cleaning to the marketplace.
GreenEarth’s positive impact on current Middle East laundry practices
GreenEarth represents a huge leap forward in human health and environmental safety for the industry. Significant evidence that release of perc from dry cleaners can cause cancer in humans has led the U.S. EPA to recently reclassify perc as a likely human carcinogen; it was also found to cause harm to the nervous system, reproduction and development, kidney, liver, immune system, and hematologic system at exposure levels much lower than previously thought. The daily exposure limits have been reset to a level six times lower the previous 1988 standard. Far stricter cleanup goals for contaminated sites are anticipated, as are new, expensive-to-meet protections for consumers in drinking water standards and air emissions.
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