GreenEarth Cleaning

The owner of one area dry cleaner, Clemson Cleaners’ Wright Henry, has given it more than a little thought. As a result, Clemson Cleaners is now on the leading edge of a “green” trend in the dry cleaning industry.

Earlier this year, Clemson Cleaners adopted a cleaning process that did away with the “old school” chemicals and equipment the firm had used since its founding in the 1970s and replaced them with the GreenEarth Cleaning process.

That process, created in 1999 by a group of environmentally conscious dry cleaners, has since been lauded by the Environmental Protection Agency and numerous other state and national environmental groups for its non-polluting nature.

As its name suggests, dry cleaning uses non-water-based solvents to remove soil and stains from clothes. It was first discovered in the mid-19th century by a French dyeworks owner who noticed that his tablecloth became cleaner after his maid spilled kerosene on it.

Early on, dry cleaners used kerosene and other highly flammable solvents in their operations before adopting chlorinated solvents after World War I. By the 1940s, the industry had switched to a chemical call perchloroethylene (or “perc,” for short) for its gentle cleaning power and lack of flammability.

Unfortunately, those virtues came with significant costs. Perc is considered a toxic air contaminant by the EPA, and the process also produces byproducts that are classified as hazardous wastes.

The GreenEarth process has no such drawbacks. In fact, if you were to spill some of the silicone-based solvent used in the process, it would degrade quickly into sand, water and carbon dioxide.

Founded in the early 1970s, Clemson Cleaners was purchased by the Henry family in 1996. Wright Henry has operated it since earning an MBA from Clemson in 2002.

“Perc is still the most popular cleaning solvent, but it’s going away,” Henry said, noting that both California and New Jersey have already mandated a timetable for dry cleaners to discontinue perc use over the next five to 10 years.

Henry said that other than a new machine and new chemicals, the process at his shop really hasn’t changed that much — and it’s even brought some added benefits beyond strictly environmental ones.

“One of the great things about the GreenEarth system is that it’s more gentle on the clothing, so we can clean a wider range of garments,” he said. “And you know that chemical smell you sometimes get when you get a suit back from the dry cleaners? This process gives you none of that.”

But according to Henry, those aren’t the most satisfying aspects of the new process.

“I’m just excited to still be able to do an excellent job of cleaning and help the world out as best I can at the same time,” he said.