Wine, chocolate, sweat— no matter what you do or eat in your favorite clothes, we use dry cleaners to get them clean. But what is drycleaning?

Unsafe Hydrocarbons!

The main solvent used in dry cleaning is called perchloroethylene, also known as PERC. While commonly known as a cleaning agent, it is also used as a metal degreaser and appears in consumer paint strippers. It’s a chemical heavily regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) due to environmental concerns. A manufactured chlorinated hydrocarbon, PERC is a known hazardous air pollutant linked to increased risks of certain cancers. By simply bringing clothing home from being cleaned, you release PERC into the air, making your indoor air all the more toxic. Side effects include skin, eye, nose, and throat irritation; reduced fertility; headache; dizziness and nausea.

Dry cleaning is not always necessary; clothing makers often place the “dry clean only” label on tags because they can list no more than one cleaning method and can be held liable if an item is damaged when the owner follows the listed procedure. Yet many of these items can be safely washed at home, either by hand or using a washing machine’s delicate cycle. For clothes that must be professionally cleaned due to their size, fabric, decorations, or other factors, there is no perfect solution, but you should consider using a cleaner that offers one of the following perc-free methods.

Cleaner Choices

A few less toxic options are available to consumers.

GreenEarth, uses a silicone-based solvent that carries detergent to the clothes and rinses away trapped dirt and oil. No chemicals are brought to the clothing. Colors stay vibrant and the fabric remains soft with little wrinkling. After many local and regional awards, the company was presented with the EPA Environmental Achievement Award for all their hard work.

Wet cleaning uses water, along with computer-controlled washers and dryers, specialized detergents that are milder than home laundry products, and professional pressing and finishing equipment. The EPA considers it one of the safest professional cleaning methods; its benefits include “no hazardous chemical use, no hazardous waste generation, no air pollution and reduced potential for water and soil contamination.”

Carbon dioxide (CO2) cleaning uses non-toxic, liquid CO2—the same form used carbonate soda—as the cleaning solvent, along with detergent. The CO2 is captured as a by-product existing industrial processes, thereby utilizing emissions would otherwise be released into the atmosphere; since only about two percent of CO2 is lost into the air with each load of clothing, its impact on global warming minimal. CO2 cleaning also uses less energy than traditional dry cleaning, which involves heating the solvent.

Not all cleaning methods advertised as “green” are environmentally benign as they may seem. For example, a solvent called DF-2000 being touted as an “organic” dry cleaning fluid is actually petroleum product. It is indeed organic in the same way gasoline and perc are organic: it contains a chain carbon atoms. As you can see, the word “organic” has much different meaning when related to food. Thank goodness!

To find a green dry-cleaner in your neighborhood go to: