BOSTON —The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that separate settlements will require UniFirst Corp. and Cintas Corp. to obtain Clean Air Act permits, as well as pay penalties, to resolve cases of alleged violations of the federal law at several of the companies’ New England facilities.
Both companies allegedly failed to obtain air pollution control permits for their facilities in the area, according to the EPA. They will now be required to follow a set of “best management practices” regarding laundering of dirty shop towels, which the agency says can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during washing and drying.
UniFirst will pay $309,980 in penalties; Cintas will pay $150,000. The EPA says both companies cooperated with the agency “in taking steps to correct the violations and in reaching quick settlements.”
In a written statement, Cintas says that its violations involved the absence of pre-construction and operating permits required for handling soiled shop towels, but that actual emission levels at the laundries in question were “a small fraction of the level of potential emissions that triggered the pre-construction requirement.”
“To exceed that trigger level with actual emissions, a single Cintas location would have had to launder more than eight times the total amount of shop towels that Cintas launders in all of New England,” according to Cintas.
In a written statement, UniFirst says that “there is no evidence that emissions at any UniFirst facility ever increased” when washers or dryers were replaced at its New England facilities, which required new air permits from EPA that weren’t obtained by the company. UniFirst adds that its current facility operations capacity could not have supported the processing of shop towels at the level that would have produced air emissions above the applicable thresholds.
“As always, we will work closely with the EPA and state officials on this and all matters to ensure all our operations are running as effectively and efficiently to keep environmental sustainability a companywide priority,” says UniFirst President and CEO Ron Croatti.
According to the EPA, the cases were brought forth after it conducted a series of inspections spanning seven years at industrial laundry facilities in New England. Since 2009, the agency has issued “numerous” notices of violation of the Clean Air Act by industrial laundry companies that supply and launder towels on a rental basis.
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