Cleaning the air of perc

Jenny Marder

Beach Cleaners, on Beach Boulevard, has stepped up as the first and

only dry cleaning business in the city to use the Green Earth

machine, one of the industry’s few environmentally safe alternatives

to perc, a cancer-causing chemical that state regulators are trying

to ban.

“The customers are thankful to me,” said Deok Lee, owner of Beach

Cleaners . “Other cleaners who use Green Earth raised the price, but

I kept the same price, so the customers are happy.”

The South Coast Air Quality Management District enacted the first

ban on perchloroethylene, or “perc,” on Dec. 6, 2001, when all dry

cleaners were told they would have to convert to alternative means by

the year 2020.

Perc has been designated as a cancer-causing chemical by the state

of California.

Green Earth representative Don Dallons boasts that the system is

the most affordable, and one of the only completely environmentally

safe alternatives, other than a carbon dioxide-based cleaner, which

is limited in its cleaning capabilities.

“It’s a really neat technology,” Dallons said. “It is odorless,

nontoxic, and where the customers benefit is, it does not pull color

out of their clothes. The perc solvent that traditional dry cleaners

use is really aggressive.”

Also, certain fabrics -- such as leather, suede and items with

sequins and beading -- can be cleaned with the Green Earth machine,

whereas at a cleaners that used perc, these items would have to be

sent out to specialty cleaners.

“It’s nontoxic for me and for our customers,” Lee said.

Not only is perc unhealthy, but it has a very bad smell, Lee said.

The transition to new technology is not cheap. The Green Earth

system costs between $55,000 and $65,000, according to state

regulators.

But the air quality management district is providing some help.

The district’s governing board has set aside $2 million to help dry

cleaners obtain grants to aid in replacing their machinery with safer

alternatives.

Beach Cleaners is among many businesses in the state to receive a

$5,000 grant to toward its purchase of the new cleaning system.

Grants are also available for a water-based technology and other

hydrocarbon machines.

The district also provides bank loan assistance to cleaners who

might otherwise have trouble qualifying for a bank loan.

“This does a wonderful job,” Dallons said of the Green Earth

system. “White colors come out whiter as compared to perc.”