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PA EPA PUBLISHES ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY ALTERNATIVES AVAILABLE TO DRYCLEANERS
Release Date: 09/04/98
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1998
EPA PUBLISHES ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY ALTERNATIVES
AVAILABLE TO DRYCLEANERS
AVAILABLE TO DRYCLEANERS
EPA is publishing a technical comparative assessment on new and innovative technologies available to help the professional dry cleaning industry evaluate and consider moving towards these more environmentally responsible cleaning systems. The assessment is intended to provide the industry with information on commercially available and emerging cleaning technologies, and emphasizes factors associated with the environmental impacts of a technology, along with cost and performance. Environmental concerns have become increasingly important to drycleaners in recent years due to tighter restrictions on air emissions and workplace exposure limits for perchloroethylene, a chemical solvent widely used in traditional drycleaning operations. In its assessment, EPA finds that over the past ten years, the drycleaning industry has significantly reduced its use of perchloroethylene, primarily through process improvements and machinery upgrades. Among new cleaning technologies, at least one, a water-based process known as “wetcleaning” has been successfully commercialized. Other technologies, including an environmentally preferable cleaning system based on liquid carbon dioxide, also are being developed, but have not yet been commercialized. Entitled “Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment: Professional Fabricare Processes,” EPA’s assessment was written as part of a voluntary partnership with the drycleaning industry and other stakeholders through EPA’s Design for the Environment Garment and Textile Program. The comprehensive technical assessment, a summary version of the assessment, fact sheet, and information on the Garment and Textile Care program, are available through the Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (202-260-1023, ppic@epa.gov, PPIC (7409), 401 M St. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460.)
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