Can SaXcell lyocell survive hotel laundry? SaXcell and Blycolin put it to the test.
A hotel towel has a hard lifecycle. It is used, collected, washed at industrial scale, dried, folded and sent back out, again and again. So when a fiber made from textile waste claims a place in that cycle, it has to prove itself in practice, not on paper.
That is exactly what SaXcell has been doing together with Blycolin, one of the leading linen service partners for the hospitality sector, and textile partner Wevotex. For several years, the three have worked side by side to develop and test terry towels made with SaXcell lyocell.
About Blycolin
Blycolin has been in the linen business since 1972. From its headquarters in Zaltbommel, the Netherlands, it offers a complete linen service for hospitality: linen rental, professional laundering, stock management and deliveries. Its customers include hotels, restaurants, wellness centers and bungalow parks in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Poland, and the company employs more than 400 people.
Circularity is part of how Blycolin works. It aims to keep linen in use for as long as possible, then give it a second life or recycle it. Blycolin is a co-founder of Cibutex, a cooperative of linen service companies working towards a fully circular textile sector, and it has set itself a clear goal: by 2050, 100% of its own textile waste should be processed into new raw materials.
From textile waste to new fiber
For Blycolin, it matters where a fiber comes from. The company places great importance on textile waste as the raw material, and that is where SaXcell starts. SaXcell turns cotton-rich textile waste into new lyocell fiber through a closed-loop lyocell process. This is fiber-to-fiber recycling: textiles at the end of their life become fiber for new textiles.
The SaXcell fibers in the current test towels are made from pre-consumer textile waste. The next step is to test fiber made from post-consumer textile waste from Blycolin’s own linen stream. Turning used hotel towels into new ones is a shared goal, and one both partners are working towards.
Built for industrial washing
In 2022, Blycolin, Wevotex and SaXcell developed the first towels with 65% SaXcell yarn in the pile loops. The towels went through several production runs and extensive wash tests in industrial laundries.
The next step was the real world. A hotel in Germany has been using the towels as part of its regular linen process for more than a year. The results so far are encouraging. The next phase of development focuses on how the quality and lifespan of the towels hold up over many more industrial wash cycles.
Sustainable and durable items
For Blycolin, making an item more sustainable must never come at the expense of its lifespan. That is why the field tests look closely at softness, quality and performance after repeated industrial washing.
It is also why both partners are taking a careful, step by step approach. New items are only scaled up and added to a collection once they have been tested extensively and the results are good. A next version of the towel, Mare Nouvo, with 30% SaXcell yarn, is now being tested for the Dutch market. Any claim about how the towels perform will be based on those test results.
The SaXcell x Blycolin collaboration
Hotels and linen service companies are looking for ways to lower the footprint of their textiles without compromising on the guest experience. Collaborations like this one show how that can work: a linen partner that knows exactly what a towel has to endure, a textile partner that knows how to make it, and a high-quality recycled fiber made from textile waste.
We are proud to work with Blycolin on this journey, and we look forward to sharing what the next round of testing brings.
Want to explore SaXcell lyocell for hospitality textiles?