Garment Cleaning
Over 80% of the U.S. professional garment cleaning industry today uses the chemical perchloroethylene ("perc") to clean clothes. Studies have identified ecological and human health hazards associated with perc usage. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has recommended that perc be handled as a human carcinogen, and the Environmental Protection Agency has classified it as a possible human carcinogen see link to "perchloroethylene fact sheet".
Some dry cleaners use alternative garment cleaning technologies that do not involve perc. Many of these dry cleaners use a petroleum-based solvent, which introduces its own set of risks to worker health, consumer health, and the environment. Others use "wet cleaning", a machine-based process that uses water as the garment cleaning solvent. Finally, a technology that is brand-new to the market cleans clothes with liquid carbon dioxide.
Several TURI projects have focused on the development of alternative garment cleaning technologies:
- Utopia Cleaners Demonstration Site
- Training Curriculum for Alternative Clothes Cleaning
- Environmental Technologies Initiative Training Curriculum
- Toxics Use Reduction Networking (TURN) Grant
- Commercialization of Professional Wet Cleaning: An Evaluation of the Opportunities and Factors Involved in Switching To a Pollution Prevention Technology in the Garment Care Industry
Informations are available on Toxics Use Reduction Institute's Community Program Website.
Copies of the following technical reports are available from the Institute Librarian,
Jan Hutchins.
Report No. 28: Supercritical Fluids As Substitutes For Dry Cleaning Solvents: Evaluation of Enzyme Activity For Stain Removal, 1995.
This page updated Tuesday October 11 2005