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Image: IRIS Photography
Can a bride take care of her wedding dress after the big day in an environmentally responsible fashion? Yes! It is possible, but it will take some homework. Most dry cleaning companies in the United States are still using a dry cleaning process which has not changed much over the last fifty years.
Wedding dresses brought to a dry cleaner after the wedding are usually cleaned in a petrochemical solvent, extracted (high speed spin), and dried at 140 degrees. The preservation process varies depending on how knowledgeable the dry cleaner is about proper conservation methods available.
Some dry cleaning firms tout environmental responsibility, but are green washing the issue. The term "organic" is thrown around with different perceptions depending if you are a consumer or a chemist. Does "organic" dry cleaning exist? For most, it does not unless one is using the chemical definition of organic which considers gasoline to be "organic" as well.
The EPA suggests only two methods of dry cleaning are safe. Wet-cleaning (a water process) and CO2 dry cleaning. The water method is generally more available but can only clean about 40% of dry clean only garments. CO2 dry cleaning is even more difficult to find as less than 30 firms across the US have invested in this technology.
Image: Tinywater Photography
Written By Gerald Pozniak, President of Jeeves of Belgravia and Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park
Gerald Pozniak is the President of Jeeves of Belgravia and Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park. Mr. Pozniak took over as the director of Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park back in 1984, and his firm acquired the New York operation of Jeeves of Belgravia, London's Finest Dry Cleaner, in 2007. He has recently installed new ECO2 cleanse machines which will establish his company as the only truly green, non-toxic luxury dry cleaning firm in NYC. It is soon to be one of only 35 firms in the country cleaning with carbon dioxide, and New York State's only carbon dioxide based garment cleaner. The biodegradable cleaning liquid and recycled CO2 are part of a safe, complete system that maximizes recycling while minimizing waste and energy use.
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