Just in time for cleaning your dry-clean only holiday outfits….the Wall Street Journal today had and article that really explains the ”organic” and “eco-friendly” dry cleaning services methods out there now. Tho we may dry clean something twice a year, I love finally understanding this issue. The article sorts thru the various processes and tests the cleaning results.
The basic fact to know is that the chemical perchloroethylene — or “perc,” is nasty nasty nasty and the EPA is requiring a phase out but that is not in full effect yet.
Roughly 80% of the nation’s 30,000 dry cleaners still employ a cleaning method using the liquid solvent perchloroethylene — or “perc,” according to the New York-based National Cleaners Association.
Good news, you can find non-perc + green cleaners in your neighborhood with these web sites ::
- CO2 cleaners are listed at findco2.com,
- wet-cleaners at professionalwetcleaning.com
- GreenEarth cleaners at greenearthcleaning.com
- nodryclean.com, which lists various cleaners by method (alternative info page)
- igreenclean.org.
And this is a teaser from the very detailed article that explains the various cleaning methods that are ok to use:
