Positively Philadelphia: An Especially Eco-Friendly Laundry Service
By Lauren Lipton
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When Gabriel Mandujano graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, he wanted to start a company that would be green and help unemployed people find jobs.
"One of my friends told me I should start a diaper service -- he had just had a kid," Mandujano (at right in photo below) recalls. "That got me researching laundry. We decided not to do diapers and just to do laundry and clothing in general."
And Wash Cycle Laundry was born. They pick up your laundry and bring it back the next day.
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They use established laundromats during the day, when those facilities are least busy, and the laundry is delivered by bicycle (actually tricycle)!
"We pick up and deliver," he tells Positively Philadelphia. "We work with individuals who just need their personal laundry done. We also work with a lot of hospitals, a lot of gyms, a few sports teams even."
One of the people working there is Terrence Williford (at left in photo above).
"I was out of work for two years. I love it!" he tells Positively Philadelphia.
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(Mandujano:) "(We are) unlike other services, where they're driving it into town and then taking it across the bridge. There's a big laundry in Atlantic City that does a lot of laundry for the hotels here. So this laundry is literally traveling from 80 to 90 miles away."
And now, he's expanded to Washington, DC, and Austin, Tex.
Hear the extended interview in this CBS Philly podcast (runs 8:18)...
And, for this week, that's "Positively Philadelphia!"
"Positively Philadelphia" main page