Perchloroethylene, better known as perc, is used by 80 percent of dry cleaners in the united states as a solvent to launder clothes that are “dry clean only. inch Despite its effectiveness, the use of this chemical has been associated with a range of health side effects and has recently come under heavy public scrutiny. With heavy regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency, professional dry cleaners would like the use of a safer chemical–liquid h2o and dioxide–to provide a green washing alternative. At-home dry cleaning kits such as Dry Cleaner’s Secret are providing the option of affordable & green safe dry cleaning, that lessens the energy-burning, waste producing processes that the professionals use.
The first step to green dry cleaning is replacing harmful chemicals with natural cleaning products. Perchloroethylene (perc) is a man made chemical that is made from a reaction between ethylene and chlorine. Like many man made chemicals, it positions a threat to your health. Perc is a central nervous system depressant. Contact with it can occur at work or in the environment when it is released into air, water, land, or groundwater. It can also occur when people use products containing perc, hang out in dry cleaning facilities that use perc, live above or adjacent to these dry cleaning facilities, or bring dry cleaned outfits into their home before they are properly shown out. Short-term contact can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, and irritation of the skin, eyes, dry cleaners near me nose, and tonsils, while long term exposure positions greater dangers, including lean meats and kidney damage and cancer.
Liquid co2 fractional laser (CO2) appears to be the most practical green dry cleaning solvent to switch perchloroethylene. It is cheap, abundant, naturally occurring and could be recycled from the industrial waste items from the manufacture of chemicals such as ammonia. Most importantly, contact with co2 fractional laser has no health side effects. The only drawbacks for dry cleaning with CO2 are that it does not clean as well as perc does and the machinery needed to use it is very expensive, thus a higher price is past about the consumer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being said, green dry cleaning is best achieved if you do not dry clean at all or limit the use of professional dry cleaning by using at-home dry cleaning kits for outfits with smaller spots and stains or that need to be freshened. Professional dry cleaning is a large process that uses a lot of energy and produces a lot of waste in the form of powdered remains, sludge and wastewater. If the dry cleaner is still using perc (it is still allowed in most states), these substances are hazardous. At-home dry cleaning involves no more than a Dry Cleaner’s Secret cleaning cloth and your hair dryer. There are no harmful chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc remains the most effective dry cleaning solvent, the use of natural cleaning products and at-home dry cleaning can only be best for our wellbeing and our environment.
