Wet Cleaning

What's Inside

Introduction

During the 1990s, the Center for Neighborhood Technology performed research, outreach and education in the fabricare industry that are unprecedented in scope and professionalism.

• CNT and its partners demonstrated the viability of techniques and technologies reduce or eliminate the use of solvents hazardous to workers and communities.
• CNT and its partners set the highest standard for research and evaluation of new technologies. As a result, safer alternatives were promoted and advanced. Today, the alternative of wetcleaning, which uses water to clean clothes that were traditionally drycleaned, is broadly accepted in the industry. A wealth of wetcleaning resources exist where before there were few.
• The results are helping to transform the garment care industry into a healthier, more efficient industry. The relationships created among diverse, at times adversarial, partners are encouraging the industry to build a new, better model for the 21st century.

This Resource Guide reviews CNT's work in the fabricare field and is divided into three parts:

1. What’s Inside tells why we did what we did;
2. Looking at the Years 1995-2000 gives a step-by-step look at how we went about our work; and
3. What We've Learned briefly describes our research projects, including the landmark demonstration shop, The Greener Cleaner, and our key findings. Resources and information are incorporated to assist those who are continuing the pollution prevention work in textile and apparel care.

Thanks to all who made our work possible, and better. Many of you asked tough questions that shaped our research and applied our theories in the real world. Our hats go off especially to the cleaners in the U.S. and over 20 other countries who participated in our programs and who took bold steps to implement wetcleaning long before it became an "acceptable" way to operate.

This Resource Guide will serve, we hope, to assist cleaners, consumers and communities to continue seeking options for healthier, more profitable neighborhood businesses. Carry on.

Sylvia Ewing
Pollution Prevention Manager

Anthony Star
Research and Outreach Associate

CNT Looks for Common Sense Solutions

CNT Spreads the Word

Pamela Johnson of CNT assised at the Clean '99 trade show in Orlando, Florida. CNT helped staff three booths; Professional Wetcleaning Network, Association of Small Business Development Centers and U.S. EPA.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology has a rich tradition of identifying common sense solutions to environmental problems in neighborhoods and industries-thus creating more livable communities for everyone.

In the fabricare industry, cleaners offer a needed service to communities. Cleaners are generally located in residential areas, family run, small businesses, with low profit margins. Workers are untrained, mostly minority and female; owners are primarily white and male. The primary cleaning agent they use is a hazardous chlorinated solvent called perc.

With funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and others, CNT began an extraordinary research project with The Greener Cleaner, a privately-owned 100 percent wetcleaning shop. In 1996, the final report from this alternative clothes cleaning demonstration shop explored the viability of emerging technology, and helped boost wetcleaning from a curiosity viewed mostly with skepticism to a technology improved upon by hundreds of cleaners.

Cooperating with industry trade associations and others, CNT staff contributed expertise to help create pollution prevention recognition and certification programs. Staff also assisted the Federal Trade Commission in considering new garment care labeling.

Pursuing objectives with honesty and dedication, CNT earned its reputation for reliable research and communication. In the spirit of cooperation, CNT brought an open attitude toward gathering and sharing information. EPA funds allowed CNT to distribute results and findings at little or no charge, and to reach a broad range of stakeholders, including cleaners in and out of the trade associations.

From 1995-2000, CNT addressed the concerns of communities, industry and government regulators. Its cutting edge work was two pronged: (1) research and promote an environmentally- and cost-efficient cleaning process; and (2) build bridges of lasting cooperation among those with stakes in the industry's future. When completing its fabricare work in mid-2000, CNT had achieved most of what it set out to do.

Unbiased, ongoing research into other new fabricare technologies remains an unfilled need. So, too, does keeping tabs on the clean up of hazardous solvents and instituting more training, recognition and certifications to make the industry more professional.

Resources listed in this guide include such trade organizations as the International Fabricare Institute, Professional Wetcleaning Network and others who continue the tradition of finding common sense solutions to environmental problems.

The Burden of the Solvent Perc

The primary chemical that the overwhelming majority of drycleaners rely on to clean clothes is the chlorinated solvent known as perc. It's full name is perchloroethylene.

Wetcleaning requires skilled personnel and special equipment, such as these computer-controlled washers.

The negative effects on human health and the environment caused by perc include:

• damage to the liver, kidney and nervous systems;
• possible links to several cancers;
• hazardous air pollution; and
• contamination of the soil and water near drycleaning shops.

Perc's risks hit close to home and pose an especially difficult challenge in the fabricare industry. As a rule, cleaners are neighborhood based and located in relatively populated areas. The harmful solvent which most cleaners use primarily hurts shop employees, who are untrained and who often are family members.

Among the benefits of wetcleaning are little or no hazardous chemical use and no chemical smell.

The fabricare industry is mostly comprised of small businesses with low profit margins. There are about 35,000 cleaners in the U.S. Over 75 percent operate their shops with fewer than 10 employees. Virtually none of the shops have any technical staff.

Within the fabricare industry, denial of perc's hazards was the order of the day in years past. Shop owners circled the wagons to defend perc. They were egged on by the chemical manufacturers who profit from perc.

Since the mid-1980s, however, growing public concern focused on the use of perc. The concern spurred research into alternative cleaning techniques and technologies.

Effective alternatives, such as wetcleaning, will help eradicate the most serious health hazard of clothes cleaning. Alternatives also will offer relief to the industry from the heavy regulatory burdens that are placed on it because of the environmental and health risks of perc.

Acknowledgements