Dry Cleaner or Starship?

Last week my friend, a young urbanist who has been apartment hunting in downtown Miami, emailed asking me for an opinion. Sure. I’m here for you buddy. How can I help? He asked me about the dry cleaner in his future neighborhood.

“It appears to be very green,” he said, “but I’d like to hear what you think.” He thought I’d want to see it - - It would be a “dry cleaner experience” unlike any I’d ever had, he said. Actually, I can’t remember anything about my previous dry cleaner experience. It was classic I’m sure. I’m no fair weather friend; I went to see my pal’s dry cleaning discovery.

You are aware no doubt that over 90% of dry cleaning businesses use a solvent that is toxic to the environment and under heavy government regulation. The typical dry cleaning process is not dry at all but akin to swishing your clothes in gasoline.

The chemical solvent most often used to lift soil from fabric is called perchloroethylene, also known as perc, one of 188 pollutants EPA regulates as air toxics. Studies point to fertility problems and miscarriages among women who work around perc. Groundwater is at risk of pollution and so are we. As customers we take home complimentary bags of perc over our clothes to continue off gassing in our closets.

That’s why my friend contacted me. He knew I’d be interested in a dry cleaner with no perc. Beyond the perc-less dry cleaning was another concept that words couldn’t convey. He had to show me.

The Experience
Never before have I entered a dry cleaning shop to be encircled by a blue sky-white cloud horizon curving along ceiling and walls. I’ve never noticed music playing or oceanscape art dressing the walls at my cleaner’s, and I definitely had never watched TV panels showing Planet Earth while I waited to be served. Was I at the dry cleaner or the holodeck of a starship?

This was ecolav®, the dry cleaning business that has just opened its flagship store on Miami Avenue. It is the first in a collection of eco-friendly dry cleaning shops envisioned by Miami businessman David Greenberg.

Perc-less dry cleaning is the future. Already California is set to ban perc by 2023. In his shop, a silicone-based solvent replaces petro-based perc as the cleaning solvent. The odorless replacement is known industrially as D5 and is trademarked as Green Earth® dry cleaning system.

ecolav® expands dry cleaning into eco education, ergo the Planet Earth video. Natural health and grooming products exude a kind of spa-ness to the lobby. I’ve seen shelves of beautiful nature products before, though the lemongrass soap that comes in a box with seeds to plant was a novelty.

For out-of-the-box concepts, I appreciated the small library of books about sustainability for customers, but then I wondered if this eco-friendly business model was approaching eco-obsession. I’m a dry cleaner novice, I admit, but isn’t it unusual to have a clean room air-lock door separating the lobby from the processing plant in the back? As we passed through the door system for my tour I asked Mr. Greenberg, what is it that he is he is keeping in or out with the air lock door. “Dust,” he told me.

There is only so much a retail tenant can do when housed on the first floor of a high rise building, but to my point about the details, the ® business sign in front of the store is solar powered. Clothing goes home on bamboo hangers (a readily renewable resource). Hanger covers are made of recycled paper, and biodegradable bags protect garments for the trip home. It’s all there.
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When I last spoke to my friend, he hadn’t yet settled on a dwelling. A downer I know, but I told him, “Don’t overlook the obvious, ol’ buddy. Serendipity, you know, to be seeking one thing and discover another thing of great value by accident. Looks like you found a super dry cleaner.”

Note: Other perc-less dry cleaning methods preferred by EPA include liquid carbon dioxide or wet cleaning using water.

www.ecolav.net
http://www.epa.gov/oppt/dfe/pubs/projects/garment/findings.htm