United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Pollution Prevention
And Toxics
(7406)
EPA744-F-98-012
June 2001
5ER&
Design for the Environment
Garment and Textile Care Program Fact Sheet
US. ERft
What is Design for the Environment*!
EPA's Design for the Environment (DFE)
Program is a voluntary initiative that
forges partnerships with various
stakeholder groups in an effort to:
• Incorporate environmental concerns
into the traditional decision-making
parameters of the business world:
'cost' and 'performance.'
• Build incentives for behavior change to
encourage continuous environmental
improvement.
• Encourage green chemistry and green
engineering approaches that reduce or
eliminate environmental concerns.
To accomplish these goals, the program
utilizes EPA expertise and leadership to
compare the relative environmental and
human health risks, performance, and cost
tradeoffs of traditional and environment-
ally-preferable technologies. DFE
disseminates information on its work to all
interested parties and also assists
businesses to implement the new
technologies identified through the
program.
The program currently has cooperative
partnerships with:
• Industry
• Trade associations
• Academia
• Environmental & public interest groups
• Labor unions
• Research organizations
• Government purchasing agencies
• Professional institutions
• State and local governments
Other federal agencies
Cleaner Clothes,
Cleaner Neighborhoods,
And Cleaner Solutions
Why is EPA working
with garment care
professionals?
Since 1992, EPA has worked in partnership
with the dry cleaning industry as part of EPA's
Design for the Environment Program. With
approximately 34,000 commercial shops in
neighborhoods and malls across the country,
drycleaners are one of the largest group of
Chemical users that come into direct contact with the public. Because of the
potential health and environmental concerns associated with perchloroethylene, or
"perc," a chemical solvent used by most drycleaners, EPA and stakeholders from the
drycleaning industry and public interest groups have been working together to
evaluate other cleaning process controls and technologies.
How did the DfE
Garment and
Textile Care Program
get started?
The DFE Garment and Textile Care Program
(GTCP) was initiated after a 1992 international
roundtable on drycleaning in which industry
leaders and EPA agreed that health and
environmental issues surrounding the
drycleaning industry could be addressed most
effectively through the Design for the
Environment's voluntary, proactive approach.
Hence, the project partnership was Established to encourage the development and
incorporation of environmentally-preferable cleaning methods which professional
cleaners can offer to their customers, while maintaining the same long-term standard
of garment cleaning, and while Maintaining or increasing economic viability. Initial
efforts focused on the development and evaluation of new cleaning methods, the
development of training materials, and the dissemination of information. It was
soon recognized that decisions made in related upstream industries affect the
cleanability of garments, and ultimately the cleaning technology choices made by
drycleaners. EPA organized several conferences and workgroups which expanded
the partnership to include representatives from industries such as garment and textile
designers, manufacturers, fiber producers, retailers, and consumers. The primary
goal of the expanded partnership was to explore how decisions made by upstream
industries, such as textile manufacturers, affect the incorporation of
environmentally-preferable methods into professional cleaning operations. These
issues resulted in the GTCP incorporating a life cycle approach, including the
identification of decisions and trends that impact garment care process choices.
What is EPA doing
about garment care
The GTCP continues to work with partners to
encourage the development of cost effective
and environmentally-preferable technologies,
and to promote their implementation through
education and technical assistance to industry
and the general public. A number of informative publications are available in hard
copy and on the GTCP web site. Working with the industry, EPA published the
Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment for Professional Fabricare
Processes (CTSA) in September 1998, which is a technical report that presents
relative risk, cost, and performance information on existing and new cleaning
technologies and substitute solvents. The goal of the CTSA was to create a
comparative assessment of clothes cleaning technologies in order to provide dry-
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cleaners with information they can use to make informed
technology choices that incorporate environmental concerns
along with the usual parameters of cost and performance. The
CTSA was intended to assist cleaners who might have limited
time or resources to collect the information themselves. The
technology information in the CTSA has been updated through
subsequent case studies and fact sheets.
The GTCP has made available a number of documents
addressing environmentally-preferable cleaning technologies.
These publications are primarily for non-technical audiences,
and include a fact sheet titled Major Federal Regulations for
Petroleum Solvent Dry cleaners, case studies on wetcleaning,
liquid carbon dioxide, an aqueous process for leather and suede
Garments, a summary version of the CTSA, a CTSA Fact
Sheet, and Frequently Asked Questions About Dry cleaning.
The EPA is collaborating with the Department of Defense
(DOD) to evaluate the performance of environmentally-
preferable cleaning processes for the cleaning of standard
military uniforms. The study is being conducted as part of
DSCP's broader Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization
Programs aimed at reducing the use of chemicals that are
potentially harmful to human health and the environment.
DSCP's overall goal is to reduce military personnel exposures to
hazardous chemicals at military installations, as well as to
reduce costs associated with storage, transport, and disposal of
traditional drycleaning solvents.
EPA continues to support the evaluation of textile parameters
such as colorfastness of common commercial textile dyes, as
well as continuing to support the development of national and
international test procedures that can be used to support care
label instructions for cleaner technologies. This work continues
under a grant with the North Carolina State University College
of Textiles and TextileCare International Ltd.
and textile industries regarding the need to examine how their
"upstream" decisions impact professional cleaning and cleaners'
ultimate choices of cleaning technologies. This approach has greatly
increased the potential environmental impact of this program well
into the future.
What environmental
benefits have resulted
from the GTCP
partnership?
The EPA DFE GTCP has
been widely credited by
industry and
environmental groups with
having a significant
impact on the drycleaning
industry. Since the 1992
inception of the GTCP, There has been an impressive decline in
perc use by drycleaners of over 68%. While the majority of the
nation's drycleaners still use perc as their primary cleaning
solvent, there are now several environmentally-preferable
cleaning technologies available to cleaners and their customers.
One of the first new cleaning technologies, professional
wetcleaning, became commercially established in 1994 and uses
water as the solvent. In 1998, a new process using liquid carbon
dioxide as the solvent became commercially available. Others
including a liquid silicone solvent are becoming established. An
increasing number of cleaners are offering these new cleaning
technologies to their customers.
Another indicator of the success of this program is the steadily
increasing sales of specialized new technology equipment and
related products, with over 2,300 units sold as of the end of
2000. This program's industrial ecology approach has resulted
in an increased appreciation by stakeholders from the apparel
How does the GTCP
affect garment care
professionals?
By joining EPA in its commit-
ment to safer, cleaner technol-
ogies, drycleaners can maintain a
competitive edge in the market-
place. With an enhanced aware-
ness of available
technology options and by offering environmentally-preferable
process choices to their customers, drycleaners can improve their
operations and bottom line while contributing to a cleaner
environment and safer workplace. As consumers increasingly opt
for "green" environmentally-sound products and services,
drycleaners that consider the health and environmental impacts of
their business decisions are more likely to sustain solid support from
both their customers and neighbors. Educating the public about new
cleaning technologies is a job professional cleaners can embrace for
sound business reasons.
As they face an ever-widening array of products and services, it is
more critical than ever that consumers understand how their every
day choices affect their health and the environment. This better
understanding will allow the public to make responsible decisions
that benefit them, their families, and their community. Consumers
can ask their neighborhood cleaners to offer environmentally-
preferable cleaning services that will contribute to a cleaner
environment.
How Can I Get More Information?
For information about EPA's DFE Garment and Textile Care
Program, visit their web site where publications can be read and
downloaded: http://www.epa.sov/dfe/sarment/sarment.html
Recent publications include:
Military Uniform Cleaning Study Fact Sheet (EPA 744-F-01-003)
100% Wetcleaning Facility: Route-Only Service Case Study (EPA 744-F-01-004)
Liquid Carbon Dioxide and Surfactant System Case Study (EPA 744-F-98-018)
Wetcleaning Systems for Garment Care Case Study (EPA 744-F-98-016)
Water-Based Cleaning System for Suede and Leather (EPA 744-F-98-017)
Major Federal Regulations Affecting Petroleum Drycleaners Fact Sheet
(EPA 744-F-99-005)
Frequently Asked Questions about Drycleaning (EPA 744-K-98-002)
Garment and Textile Care Resource Guide (EPA 744-K-98-005)
Cleaner Technologies Substitutes Assessment for Professional Fabricare Processes
(CTSA) (EPA 744-B-98-001)
CTSA: Summary (EPA 744-S-98-001)
CTSA Fact Sheet (EPA 744-F-98-011)
A web list of cleaners offering wetcleaning, liquid CO 2 & liquid silicone processes
Sinsle copies of DFE documents can be ordered from:
EPA's Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (7409)
Washington, DC 20460
Telephone: (202) 260-1023
Fax: (202)260-0178
Email: ppic(@,epa.gov
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