Those very long rolls of cotton/linen from the wall-mounted towel roll machines (in corporate rest rooms) - how do the laundry companies wash them?
Do they just get thrown in and untangled afterwards, or what?
NO Not at all. That would result in one mel of a hess! 
I contacted the local linnen supply service to get the Straight Dope, from the horses mouth as it were, for you and all others having an interest in such mundane a matter.
Roller Linen Towels are becoming a thing of the past as new buildings and renovations result it warm air hand dryers and paper towel dispensers replacing them. Several machines are required to accomplish the washing process, then dry, press, and prepare them for delivery. The janitor or janitorial service can then intstall them in the apparatus for use as needed.
You mean they actually wash those things? I always figured the idea was just that by the time you’ve been round the whole reel, the beginning section is dry again 
Either that or one end just becomes detached and dangles in a pool of urine before being thrown out, anyway.
Having worked in half a dozen different corporate office buildings, I can assure you people that I have absolutely no idea WTF you’re talking about.
Anybody got a picture of such a heinous contraption? It sounds thoroughly disgusting.
First link I got on Google Images for “roller hand towel”:
Barf.
I remember when every restaurant and gas station had these things in their restrooms. I saw one pretty recently and couldn’t remember the last time I saw one.
I always wondered if the cheap people who had them would rewind them a couple of times before sending them out for cleaning. In theory, if they’re used properly, you have a clean cloth towel to dry your hands with. I always find myself pulling it out a few extra clicks to be sure though.
They’re just in the process of replacing them with airblade dryers at my workplace. I don’t think anyone would bother reinserting a spent towel - it defeats the whole object of installing them.
Some years ago I found on the street a newly washed roll which may have fallen out of a truck or something. It is the stereotypical white with blue stripes. I have been cutting lengths and making small hand towels, kitchen cloths and rags etc. And I have enough to last me the rest of my life probably.
If used correctly towel rolls are a more hygienic means of drying hands than hot air devices (and I’d hazard a guess that they’re probably more environmentally friendly too). The principle removal of bacteria during hand washing is due to the detergent affect on the oily layer covering the skin, taking the germs with it at the same time. It makes sense to transfer what’s left following rinsing onto a towel rather than to just evaporate the water under an air stream and leave the residue. Not only that, but hot air driers frequently act as ideal warm, moist growth environments for bacteria and so fill the air stream with micro-organisms. Studies have shown that by using them you can even end up with more bacteria on your hands than you had to start with. And that’s before you consider the fact that they’re useless anyway as a means for drying anything.
They replaced them in my workplace about two years ago with automatic paper towel dispensers (the ones that automatically spit out a towel when you wave your hands in front of it). Before I started my current job, I hadn’t seen them for years. I wonder if I’ll ever see one again.
For whatever reason, the paper towel dispensers don’t run out nearly as fast. With the old towels, you were often left with nothing to dry your hands with but the nasty, already used ends (or your own pants). I think people took too many pulls in an effort to get dry towel away from where other people had wiped.
I actually worked as a temp back in college at factory that washes those things. It was so many years ago I barely remember, but I’m pretty sure the towels are always being rolled off one roll and rolled onto another roll throughout the process of cleaning, drying and pressing them.
Heh, I found a job description for it.
That sounds like the Kodak film and print developing except for being able to do it in daylight.