Previous Site Use ScenariosFeedback

In spite of the name, dry cleaning is not completely dry. Fluids are used in the dry cleaning process. In the early days, garment scourers and dryers found several fluids that could be used as dry cleaning solvents including camphene, benzene, kerosene, and gasoline. In the 1930s, perchloroethylene (PERC), a non-flammable synthetic solvent was introduced and is used today in many dry cleaning plants. There are various makes/models of dry cleaning machines. Despite the differences, all dry cleaning machines have the same basic components:

The holding tank holds the dry cleaning solvent. A pump is used to circulate the solvent through the machine during the cleaning process. Filters are used to trap solid impurities. A cylinder or wheel is where the garments are placed to be cleaned. The solvent is drawn from the tank by the pump. The pump send the solvent through the filters to trap the impurities. The filtered solvent then enters the cylinder to flush soil from the clothes. The solvent leaves the cylinder button trap and goes back to the holding tank. This process is repeated throughout the entire cleaning cycle, ensuring that the solvent is maintained to give effective cleaning at all times. After the cleaning cycle, the solvent is drained and an extract cycle is run to remove the excess solvent from the clothes. This solvent is drained back to the base tank. During extraction, the rotation of the cylinder increases in order to use centrifugal force to remove the solvent from the clothes. Once the clothes have finished extracting, the cylinder stops. At this time, clothes are either transferred to a separate dryer or, on most machines, dried in the same unit, a closed system. The drying process uses warm air circulated through the cylinder to vaporize the solvent left on the clothes. The solvent is purified in a still. Here the solvent is heated. The vapors are then condensed back to a liquid leaving behind all impurities in the still. This clean solvent is then pumped back into the holding/base tank.

The main source of pollution from a dry cleaner is the solvent used in the cleaning process. Dry cleaners typically use perchloroethylene (PERC), petroleum solvents, and freon-type solvents. These pollutants can affect human health and safety and the environment:

Common dangerous wastes present at dry cleaning facilities include:

Solvent contamination from dry cleaners can pose a very real danger to human and environmental health. Remediation of sites contaminated by dry cleaning solvents can be costly and time consuming, but it can be done. The State Coalition for Remediation of Dry Cleaners provides an overview of the contaminants and remediation technologies typically used at dry cleaner sites, yet every site is unique, and developers will need to develop a remediation plan based upon the contamination actually present on-site.

Resources for Dry Cleaners areavailable in the Links to Resources for Dry Cleaner Sites Exhibit.

Exhibit: Links to Resources for Dry Cleaner Sites