Clean Clothes, Clean Environment

The vast majority of the country’s 35,000+ dry cleaners use perchloroethylene, a known toxin, to get your clothes clean. California has committed to phasing out “perc” by 2023. But what are your options if you want professionally cleaned clothes and a clean environment before then?

According to Green America, you have a couple of good choices. One is to wet-clean your items—even those that say “Dry Clean Only.” The secret is a computer-controlled washer that can be programmed to spin as slowly as six revolutions per minute, depending on the fabric. And no toxins are needed to get stains out.

The other option is liquid carbon dioxide cleaning. In the process, CO2 is converted to a nontoxic liquid solvent that gets out all sorts of stains when clothes are rotated in a special machine. The liquid CO2 is pumped back to a storage tank at the end of the cycle, ready to be used again. No new CO2 is generated—the CO2 used is recaptured as a by-product from other industries—so the process does not contribute to global warming. (Avoid CO2 cleaners that use Solvair machines, which utilize toxic glycol ether as a solvent.)

The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute of Occidental College offers an online directory to help you find liquid CO2 and wet cleaners in your area.