Trendsurfing: Green dry-cleaning (The Times)
By David Rowan
They're on to a hot story at Laundry & Cleaning Today. Forget the usual professionally finished features about ironing trends and tumble-drying techniques: all Britain's dry-cleaners want to read about today are the strange foreign ideas suddenly threatening their way of life. From America and Europe, a new wave of "environment friendly" dry-cleaning processes is arriving to clean up a notoriously un-green industry. And according to Jack Fowler, the trade paper's editor, they could bring the biggest shake-up and fold-down since laundries discovered Perc in the Thirties.
"Perc" is perchloroethylene, the most common dry-cleaning solvent. It's certainly tough: as its British manufacturer boasts in December's issue, "it easily cleans greasy items and provides the cleaning performance demanded by the industry and its customers". Unfortunately, Perc is also a suspected carcinogen which pollutes air and water supplies. So its environmentally concerned opponents have been busily developing alternatives.
Until now, there were few places in Britain to try the results. But the success of "green" dry-cleaning businesses in Scandinavia and California has finally brought the concept home. Within the next year, hundreds of UK stores will be phasing out Perc for less toxic alternatives. And that, for the ethically aware, should iron out a few pangs of conscience.
Lockwoods the Cleaners took the plunge last May, becoming the first British independent to use an American silicone-based substitute called GreenEarth. "I'm 47, and I want to be in the business in another 20 years," explains John Lockwood, whose father started the small West Yorkshire chain in 1953. He admits to being "a bit of a green": at home, his wife insists on recycling the paper and bottles. But this decision was led by head as much as heart. "Looking at the way legislation has gone, it was a case of planning for the future," Lockwood says. "Our industry is wide open to criticism about the sort of solvents we use, particularly as we're so visible on the high street. A lot of my colleagues tend to bury their heads," he adds despairingly. "So many of them are just nine-to-fivers."
Lockwoods has some influential company. Johnsons Cleaners, part of the group that owns Sketchley and Jeeves, has converted around 150 of its 630 branches to GreenEarth, and says the rest will follow by 2007. It costs a few thousand pounds to update each cleaning machine, but John Lockwood still charges normal rates - typically £8.70 for a two-piece suit. "And apart from the huge environmental issue, my staff prefer to work with it," he says. "There's no odour at all, and it's not a skin irritant. We're also getting brighter colours, with most fabrics feeling softer." Still, Jack Fowler awaits convincing that silicone will remove the toughest grease stains. "'Til then," he says, "I'm sitting on the fence."
But silicone is not Perc's only challenger. Another technology is called "wet cleaning"; a third uses carbon dioxide, converted under pressure to a liquid. The Hangers chain currently uses the carbon dioxide process in 90 North American stores, and now Jan Hamrefors is rolling out the Hangers franchise across Europe. Last year stores opened in Scandinavia and the Netherlands; this year, Hangers plans to reach the UK.
"This is a conservative industry, but I definitely think it's ready for change," Hamrefors says. "Of course, we're doing this for business reasons, as we believe the demand is there. Still, if we can also save the world in the process..."
(The Times, London, January 1 2005)
They're on to a hot story at Laundry & Cleaning Today. Forget the usual professionally finished features about ironing trends and tumble-drying techniques: all Britain's dry-cleaners want to read about today are the strange foreign ideas suddenly threatening their way of life. From America and Europe, a new wave of "environment friendly" dry-cleaning processes is arriving to clean up a notoriously un-green industry. And according to Jack Fowler, the trade paper's editor, they could bring the biggest shake-up and fold-down since laundries discovered Perc in the Thirties.
"Perc" is perchloroethylene, the most common dry-cleaning solvent. It's certainly tough: as its British manufacturer boasts in December's issue, "it easily cleans greasy items and provides the cleaning performance demanded by the industry and its customers". Unfortunately, Perc is also a suspected carcinogen which pollutes air and water supplies. So its environmentally concerned opponents have been busily developing alternatives.
Until now, there were few places in Britain to try the results. But the success of "green" dry-cleaning businesses in Scandinavia and California has finally brought the concept home. Within the next year, hundreds of UK stores will be phasing out Perc for less toxic alternatives. And that, for the ethically aware, should iron out a few pangs of conscience.
Lockwoods the Cleaners took the plunge last May, becoming the first British independent to use an American silicone-based substitute called GreenEarth. "I'm 47, and I want to be in the business in another 20 years," explains John Lockwood, whose father started the small West Yorkshire chain in 1953. He admits to being "a bit of a green": at home, his wife insists on recycling the paper and bottles. But this decision was led by head as much as heart. "Looking at the way legislation has gone, it was a case of planning for the future," Lockwood says. "Our industry is wide open to criticism about the sort of solvents we use, particularly as we're so visible on the high street. A lot of my colleagues tend to bury their heads," he adds despairingly. "So many of them are just nine-to-fivers."
Lockwoods has some influential company. Johnsons Cleaners, part of the group that owns Sketchley and Jeeves, has converted around 150 of its 630 branches to GreenEarth, and says the rest will follow by 2007. It costs a few thousand pounds to update each cleaning machine, but John Lockwood still charges normal rates - typically £8.70 for a two-piece suit. "And apart from the huge environmental issue, my staff prefer to work with it," he says. "There's no odour at all, and it's not a skin irritant. We're also getting brighter colours, with most fabrics feeling softer." Still, Jack Fowler awaits convincing that silicone will remove the toughest grease stains. "'Til then," he says, "I'm sitting on the fence."
But silicone is not Perc's only challenger. Another technology is called "wet cleaning"; a third uses carbon dioxide, converted under pressure to a liquid. The Hangers chain currently uses the carbon dioxide process in 90 North American stores, and now Jan Hamrefors is rolling out the Hangers franchise across Europe. Last year stores opened in Scandinavia and the Netherlands; this year, Hangers plans to reach the UK.
"This is a conservative industry, but I definitely think it's ready for change," Hamrefors says. "Of course, we're doing this for business reasons, as we believe the demand is there. Still, if we can also save the world in the process..."
(The Times, London, January 1 2005)
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