Content about chemicals

NEW YORK — Beginning next February, New York City dry cleaners will be required to disclose to consumers the primary chemicals used in their dry cleaning process, says the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

About 1,400 dry cleaning businesses throughout the Big Apple will be required to list the chemicals and a link to information about their health effects, so that consumers can access their potential impact.

DEP will work with affected businesses over the next year to implement the new rule ahead of the enforcement date.

“The local dry cleaner is an essential part of life for most New Yorkers, and it is important that information about all the chemicals used by these businesses is available,” says DEP Commissioner Carter Strickland. “At virtually no cost to businesses, this rule will ensure that this important public health information is available to the public.”

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Mary Scalco, CEO of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), and Nora Nealis, executive director of the National Cleaners Association (NCA), visit a lot of dry cleaning operations in their work. They are direct competitors, but they share a common goal: improving the dry cleaning industry and helping its operators learn how to build better businesses.

And so the two recently collaborated on an educational seminar, offered during the California Cleaners Association’s Fabricare show, that demonstrates What Cleaners Are Doing to Thrive Today.

SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY

If you want your dry cleaning business to thrive, Scalco says, there’s something you must do. “You change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.”

You’re no doubt familiar with the FedEx logo, as it can be seen on the delivery company’s trucks, on billboards, in TV commercials, and more. But did you ever notice that the logo contains within it an arrow? It is an ingenious way to depict movement, she says.

NEW YORK — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a plan to clean up ground water at the Peninsula Boulevard Ground Water Plume Superfund site in Hempstead, N.Y.

The ground water is contaminated with tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, dry-cleaning chemicals that can seriously impact people’s health, EPA says.

The cleanup plan entails extracting ground water from the site using pumping wells and treating the water to remove the contaminants before it is disposed of at a public wastewater treatment facility or sent back into surface or ground water.

Residents in the area get their drinking water from the Long Island American Water Co., which operates a drinking water well field approximately 1,000 feet north of the Peninsula Boulevard site. EPA did not detect any contaminants above acceptable levels in ground water from the company during its investigation.

A series of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation investigations in the 1990s revealed an extensive ground water contaminant plume at the site of the former Grove Cleaners, EPA says.

CHICAGO — Not so long ago, when you looked up “green” in the dictionary, there was a brief definition about color or pigment. Today, it’s difficult to read or hear the word “green” without also thinking of the environment, of conservation, of sustainability.

When writing about greening a business operation such as a drycleaner, it’s difficult to know where to start. There are so many different ways that a cleaner could boost its environmental profile, and so many different areas that are candidates for green initiatives.

And while going green could involve a decision to invest in new equipment, chemicals or supplies, there are low-cost, common sense changes that can also make a drycleaner more enviro-friendly.

OPPORTUNITIES TO GREEN

Every part of a drycleaning operation can be engineered to be “greener.” As you examine your operation for opportunities, here are just a few things to include on your checklist:

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance (HSIA) filed a petition last week with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to list n-Propyl Bromide (nPB), a brominated hydrocarbon, as a hazardous air pollutant under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act. Such a listing would result in regulation of significant sources of nPB emissions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an action plan last Wednesday to address potential health risks of nonylphenol (NP)/nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) used in industrial laundry detergents. The plan identifies a range of actions the agency is considering under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The Clothing Care Council (CCC) offers every drycleaner an opportunity to distinguish himself or herself with the voluntary Award of Excellence (AOE) certification program. This month, I’ll cover the second half of AOE’s stain-removal test, which features egg, red wine and spaghetti-sauce stains on swatches of plain white silk.

EGG

CHICAGO — Nine out of 10 (91.7%) operators now use professional wetcleaning techniques in their plants, according to this month’s Wire survey. Half (50.0%) of the respondents still process less than 25% of their non-laundry garment processing in water, however.

Tax season is here, and what are you going to do about it? “Don’t bug me,” you say, “I’ve got a business to run, orders to get out, employees to motivate, customers to satisfy. My accountant handles everything.”

Okay, but remember, you’ll spend extra money on accounting when you should be watching every expense carefully. More importantly, you’ll miss a great opportunity to build a keen understanding of your business.

WASHINGTON — Representatives of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), MidAtlantic Association of Cleaners (MAC) and Korean Drycleaners Association (KDA) recently appeared at a hearing of the District of Columbia’s Committee on Government Operations and the Environment to defend perchloroethylene against a proposed ban. The Human & Environmental Health Protection Amendment Act of 2009 would ban the use of several chemicals in the District of Columbia, including perc.

MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit against White Way Cleaners of St. Paul, Minn., accusing the drycleaner of firing an employee because she was pregnant.

NEW ORLEANS — Knocked out of Clean’s rotation temporarily by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is set to host the industry’s biggest exhibition for the first time in eight years. And while the recession has everyone in this and every other industry carefully counting their pennies, the outlook is positive for this year’s show.