greenhavendaily.com | green living within your reach

What's the Dirty on Drycleaning?
We all want to look our best, but not at the expense of our health. Dry-cleaners use a variety of toxic chemicals to clean your clothes. The worst is a cancer-causing chemical called perchloroethylene (causally called Perc or PCE). Approximately 28,000 U.S. dry cleaners use Perc, so limit the amount of clothes that you send to the dry-cleaner. Either buy clothes that don't require dry-cleaning or try and find a "green" dry-cleaner to take your clothes to. These companies use CO2 or water to clean your clothes instead of the mix of toxic chemicals (including Perc) that standard dry-cleaners use.

What Makes it Green?
Opting out of dry-cleaning is a good choice for your health. The harmful emissions from Perc can cause a range of health problems, the worst being an increased risk for a variety of cancers (esophagus, kidney, bladder, lung, pancreas, and cervix). Also, Perc stays in the environment long after your dry-cleaned shirt is dirty again. Exposure to the toxic Perc emissions can cause irritation of the upper respiratory tract and eyes, dizziness and headaches.

What You Can Do

• Buy clothes that don't require "Dry-clean Only".
• Take the plastic bags off dry-cleaned clothes and air out outside for a few minutes before bringing them into the house.
• Products like Dryl and FreshCare allow you to do minor stain removal and deodorize and then "clean" your clothes in your dryer at home. Although these products aren't really eco-friendly, they are better the Perc.
• As long as they aren't too dirty, you can also wear dry-cleaned clothes more than once. Just hang them in the bathroom while your taking a shower or outside in a sunny/breezy spot.
• Use "green" drycleaners. They use CO2 cleaning or wet cleaning instead of dry cleaning.