Wash Cycle Laundry is bringing its bike-powered laundry service to GW

Wash Cycle Laundry, a Philadelphia-based sustainable laundry service company that launched in D.C. last May, announced Wednesday it would be servicing George Washington University.
Wash Cycle will be cleaning the reusable microfiber mop-heads and towels adopted by the university’s janitorial contractor, Aramark, just for the partnership.
Last week, the company cleaned up the brand-new material from GW’s Science and Engineering Hall. “Our very first pickup was everything in the boxes,” said spokeswoman Leigh Goldenberg.
The agreement — which involves an estimated 10,000 pounds of laundry for the entire Foggy Bottom campus — will create five full-time jobs: three laundry staff and two cyclists, which will more than double the social enterprise’s current employee count in D.C.
Wash Cycle is working with local organizations to provide employment opportunities to vulnerable adults — people who were either previously incarcerated, homeless, dependent on welfare or struggling with addiction issues.
“A lot of universities like to leverage their procurement dollars to funnel jobs into their local community,” said Goldenberg. In Philadelphia, Wash Cycle has similar partnerships with the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.
“One of the best ways to ensure our success as a sustainable campus is to have partnerships that support our goals,” Ronda Chapman, the sustainability project facilitator at George Washington, said in a press release. “Aramark continues to work closely with us to do just that. We are very excited that they were so willing to take this step!”
“We’re proud to work with Aramark and the George Washington University who have committed to using environmentally-friendly laundry services in the nation’s capital,” added Wash Cycle Laundry’s founder and CEO, Gabriel Mandujano.