The Beijing Olympic Village, the No. 1 village in the world

Washing machines in Olympic Village

General information

There will be a total of 20,000 athletes and officials from the Olympic Games and 7,000 from the Paralympic Games living in the Olympic Village between July 27 and September 20. Laundry service, like food service, is a tremendous task for such a large number of people. A huge laundry center has been built within the Olympic village to ensure that its residents will receive the service they require.

Detergentless washing machines

The laundry center is a large, cubic, temporary building located near the logistics center, northeast of the main dining hall. It occupies an area of 2000 square meters and contains rows and rows of new, identical washing machines. It has been reported that 200 washing machines and 400 driers have been installed in the super-sized laundry center. The appliances have been provided by an Olympic sponsor and will be in full operation during the Games.

The washing machines provided by the sponsor are environmentally-friendly appliances that do not use detergent. The washing machines use a new, double-wheel turning technology to produce a stronger flow of water that penetrates fibers and removes dirt molecules from the clothing. They also use electrolysis to filter out a variety of compounds found in tap water and produce ionized water (pH 9-11) for cleaning clothes.

These washing machines also excel in energy conservation. They are programmed to automatically stop when clothing is clean and will also utilize "quiet operations" technology. The machine determines the length of the washing process according to each specific situation, which reduces water consumption by 30 percent, electricity consumption by 30 percent and wear on clothing by 25 percent.

Huge load of washing every day

The village will have 16,000 residents during Games-time. The room service center will change sheets and quilt covers every four days and towels every two days. This means that an average of 4,000 athletes will change sheets and quilt covers each day, and 8,000 athletes will change towels and bath towels each day. Taking reports and officials into consideration, the laundry load could be even greater. It has been estimated that the laundry center will clean 6,000 sheets, 6,000 quilt covers, 12,000 towels and 12,000 bath towels every day.

In addition, each athlete will have at least one set of sportswear to clean each day, which adds about 10,000 sets of clothes to the daily laundry load.

It is expected that each washing machine, on average, will wash 30 sheets, 30 quilt covers, 60 towels, 60 bath towels and 50 sets of clothes every day.

Schedule and procedure of laundry service

The laundry center has been built near the logistics center to make the distribution process easier. Clothing and bedding that need cleaning will be collected, sorted and marked at Village service centers before they are sent to the laundry center. The laundry center then washes, dries and packs the cleaned items and sends them back to each service center. Finally, apartment building service workers deliver the items back to individual rooms.

The Village also offers free washing service for residents to wash personal clothing items. Each resident will be given two bags marked with the names of the owner and the delegation. One bag is for white clothing and the other for colored clothing.

The operating hours for these machines are 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day. Residents who send clothing to these washing rooms before 10:00 a.m. can get the clothing back before 10:30 p.m.; clothes sent after 10:00 a.m. can be picked up the following day. If clothing is not picked up after 72 hours the delegation concerned will be informed. Personal clothing is washed and dried but not ironed.

To avoid inconvenience caused when towels and bath towels are being washed, the service centers will use a "towel exchange" scheme -- residents will be able to trade in their used towels for clean ones as long as they remember to return the same number of towels as they take.