SCANDINAVIA
Daniel Kärrholt, CEO of Sveriges Tvätteriförbund,the Swedish Textile Services Association, reports on the autumn meeting in Nacka in the Stockholm area which drew in about 130 participants and also staged an industry exhibition, which attracted around 35 member companies.
“It has become a tradition to be welcomed by one of the meeting city’s municipal councillors. This time we had the pleasure of listening to Agnes Palinski, municipal councillor and vice-chairman of the Environment and Urban Planning Committee and a member of the municipal council in Nacka,” said Kärrholt.
“Cyprian Ong’au Morang’a, site manager for MoveByBike in Stockholm. MoveByBike is a leading logistics player for citysmart last mile. With electric transport bikes, they get around and save time. The logistics solution of the future – environmentally friendly and cycle-borne. (Ong’au Morang’a replaced Lisette Hallström who was originally due to speak in this slot.)
“We then welcomed back Yvonne Augustsson from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. At the 2017 annual meeting, she spoke about microplastics. This year the focus was three pieces of legislation, which will affect the members of Tvätteriförbundet
“Two pieces of legislation have been decided: Ecodesign for sustainable products and separate collection of textiles from other waste. In addition, there was a brief status update on the ongoing negotiations regarding possible producer responsibility.
“Michael Bo Jensen is a leading expert at our supplier member Alumichem who, for the past 20 years, has implemented solutions for industrial laundries and continues so to do. More recently, he has worked with sludge solutions for land-based fish farming facilities, known as Recirculating Aquaculture Systems. (Alumichem is also present at Texcare Hall 8.0 L76. Be sure to visit them there.),” said Kärrholt.
“We also said a ‘welcome back’ to Roos Mulder who was at the autumn meeting in 2022. In Nacka, Mulder talked about Texscale a project to drive systematic change through scaling up. Project participants are Rester, Sysav, Tvätteriförbundet and others. The project’s main goal is to increase the resource-efficient use of textiles by bridging the gap between nonwoven production on a pilot and industrial scale, optimising logistics and increasing the knowledge and ability within the industry to convert to a circular economy.”
“Two pieces of legislation have been decided: Ecodesign for sustainable products and separate collection of textiles from other waste. In addition, there was a brief status update on the ongoing negotiations regarding possible producer responsibility.”
“Michael Bo Jensen is a leading expert at our supplier member Alumichem who, for the past 20 years, has implemented solutions for industrial laundries and continues so to do. More recently, he has worked with sludge solutions for land-based fish farming facilities, known as Recirculating Aquaculture Systems. (Alumichem is also present at Texcare Hall 8.0 L76. Be sure to visit them there.),” said Kärrholt.
“We also said a ‘welcome back’ to Roos Mulder who was at the autumn meeting in 2022. Mulder talked about Texscale a project to drive systematic change through scaling up. Project participants are Rester, Sysav, Tvätteriförbundet and others. The project’s main goal is to increase the resource-efficient use of textiles by bridging the gap between nonwoven production on a pilot and industrial scale, optimising logistics and increasing the knowledge and ability within the industry to convert to a circular economy.”
Allan Larsson, Sweden’s former Social Democrat Minister of Finance and Director General, has just published ‘Memory pictures – instead of memoirs’, a new form of memoir writing. He describes in pictures and a short text 51 key events from his childhood and his long life in public activities.
The memories ranged from the eight-year-old’s fear that the nuclear weapons tests in 1946 would blow up the whole world; his first meeting with Olof Palme in 1956; his work as a journalist at Arbetet, Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, SVT and Tidningen Vi, and; his experiences as one of ‘Tage’s Boys’ (Premier Tage Erlander’s ‘The Boys’ were a group of young Social Democrats who served as personal staff to Prime Minister Erlander in the 1960s). He followed this with six years as AMS director and subsequently five years in the Government and the Riksdag in the 1990s.
Larsson described Sweden’s path to the EU, ‘From metal speech to membership’, and how in the 1990s he came to collaborate with Jacques Delors and Jean-Claude Juncker on a European employment strategy and was special adviser on the European Pillar of Social Rights. In a commemorative picture, he compares the experiences from his work for four prime ministers: Tage Erlander, Olof Palme, Ingvar Carlsson and Stefan Löfven.
After lunch, there was a presentation by Simone Fuchs, head of legal and sustainability at Eniro, who talked about the company’s journey of change – from the yellow catalogue to today’s innovative customer-focused company
The day ended with Jan Nicolay, head of business development, sewts. This is how they describe themselves: “sewts is pioneering the century of Physical AI. We are accelerating the development of agile robotics perfectly tailored to bridge automation gaps in the textile service industry. Our brain-in-a-box approach to building advanced robotics spins out intricate and new use cases, positioning sewts as the go-to company to address complex automation tasks in the future”.
Swedish TSA’s chairman Michael Sandin thanked everyone for a successful day and with a special thanks to all the partners of the autumn meeting – Texcare, Alumichem, Dibella, Maxi-Press, Beirholm, Floringo and ABS Laundry Business Solutions.
“Finishing off the event, more than a hundred people gathered for dinner. The happy atmosphere lasted long before night turned to morning,” reported Kärrholt with satisfaction.
