Present textile life-cycle assessments do not include the effect of product durability or rate of use.
The life times of hotel textiles can be considered to be as long as their physical life times with the exception of terrytowels
with high stealth rate and rejection due to permanent soiling. Total environmental impacts of durable products are lower than of less durable ones.
The polyester-versus-cotton approach changed dramatically when the textile durability effect was included in the LC inventory calculations: thus the production energy
consumption, with related environmental impacts, of 50/50 CO/PES sheets for 100 laundering cycles proved to be 42% lower than of 100% CO sheets. The durability and rate of use effects are recommended to be included in future life-cycle assessments (14) but no guide-lines for calculation methods are introduced within the present ISO standards on life cycle assessments.