sfenvironment.org

Garment Cleaning

The last time you went to the dry cleaners, you may have come home with more than you expected. Contrary to popular belief, dry cleaning is not really "dry"; clothes are immersed in chemical solvents to remove dirt and stains. Since the 1930s, most dry cleaners in America have been using perchloroethylene ("perc") as their primary cleaning solvent. In California, approximately 80% of the more than 5,000 dry cleaning facilities continue to use perc. Perc is a known carcinogen and environmental toxicant, which leaches into the ground water, contaminates soil, vaporizes into air and leaves a residue in dry cleaned garments. Because of the risks it poses to the environment, in January 2007, the California Air Resources Board ruled to phase out the use of perc throughout California.

Although various perc alternatives are available, they pose varying degrees of health and environmental concerns in spite of being marketed as "eco-friendly". Professional wet cleaning has been identified as a truly environmentally friendly, non-smog forming technology that minimizes environmental and health concerns. Professional wet cleaning uses specialized equipment to clean garments with water and soaps.

Another garment cleaning technology thought to minimize environmental hazards is CO2 dry cleaning. CO2 dry cleaning uses pressurized liquid carbon dioxide harvested from other industrial processes to clean garments. Due to the lack of commercial availability at this time and limited use by cleaners, there is insufficient information to fully assess this technology.

Unfortunately, wet and CO2 cleaning are fairly new technologies and have not been widely adopted yet. But by encouraging your local cleaner to adopt these technologies or by only supporting dry cleaners that offer wet and CO2 dry cleaning, we can show other cleaners that environmentally responsible practices are important to us.

SF Environment offers $5,000 grants to San Francisco cleaners that replace their solvent dry cleaning equipment with professional wet cleaning systems. This funding supplements up to $15,000 available to new wet cleaners from the California Air Resources Board and the UCLA state wet cleaning demonstration program. Funding is also available to help train new wet cleaners.

Below are San Francisco's 100% Dedicated Wet Cleaners:

SF Green Clean
222 Halleck Street (at Lincoln Blvd.)
(415) 567-2100
www.sfgreenclean.com

SF Green Clean
2525 Jones Street (at Columbus Ave.)
(415) 771-8095
www.sfgreenclean.com

Pacific Heights Cleaners
2437 Fillmore Street (at Jackson St.)
(415) 567-5999
http://eco-drycleaners.com

Bay Breeze Cleaners
1018 Hyde Street (at Pine St.)
(415) 474-5524
www.baybreezecleaners.com

Vermont Cleaners
600 Vermont Street (at 18th St.)
(415) 647-8080

Pete's Cleaners
3859 24th Street (at Vicksburg St.)
(415) 647-2064


What else can consumers do to help green the dry cleaning industry?

1) Understand the health and environmental impacts of dry cleaning solvents.

2) Learn about how environmentally-friendly wet cleaning works:

• Video
• NPR Report

3) Bring your garments to a truly green cleaner near you. Use this map to find a green garment cleaner in SF.

4) Find out what technology your local San Francisco dry cleaner uses. If your cleaner offers wet cleaning and another technology, ask them to wet clean your garments.

5) If your local cleaner does not already offer wet cleaning, encourage them to adopt this environmentally friendly technology. Approximately 40 of the remaining perc cleaners in San Francisco will be required by state law to convert to an alternative technology by July, 2010, and consumer input can strongly influence their decision.

6) As more and more cleaners claim to be "eco-friendly", "organic" and "environmentally friendly", you must carefully evaluate the environmental claims made by the dry cleaning industry.

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