Saskatoon company switches to less toxic way to clean clothes

In Saskatoon, there's a little family-owned shop that used to be a dry cleaner. They still clean clothes there, but they no longer use typical drycleaning methods.

Customers won't smell that usual dry cleaning odour on clothing coming out of this shop. Two years ago, the owners Murray Gould and Juanita Wotherspoon ditched all of their dry cleaning equipment, which used a toxic chemical commonly called percshort for perchloroethylene. It's a solvent used not only in dry cleaning, but in paint strippers and for de-greasing cars.

"It's a toxin. It produces sludge when you clean. It's hazardous to your health. And is extremely hazardous to the environment. So after much research I decided to go with wet cleaning," Gould said.

Special machines and soap from Sweden

He uses a specially designed machine out of Sweden that washes and dries garments using water and biodegradable soap, but with very little agitation.

"The special soaps and softeners that they use allows us to wash your Hugo Boss, your Versace suits, whatever you have," Gould explained.

The clothes don't shrink, partly due to the fabrics commonly used today.

"They're finer, they're softer, and they can stand being washed," Gould explained.

He has kept his prices in line with conventional dry cleaning, partly because of competitive pressure in the industry. The wet cleaning soap is expensive, he said, but he doesn't have the expense of hauling away the perc sludge and wash water for safe disposal. Gouldsaid most of his operating cost is in finishing garments, the steaming and pressing.

Safer for staff

Meanwhile, his staff don't have to suffer from breathing in perc day after day.

"Honestly it makes you feel sick. You have headaches, respiratory issues. There's always that smell in the plant," Gould went on.

His employee, April Favel has worked in the cleaning business for well over two decades. She remembers how it affected her.

"Prone to colds, prone to infections, things like that, just brings your immune system down," Favel recalled.

She said she feels good since the switch to wet cleaning, and hasn't had to miss work.

So far, Family Cleaners appears to be the only dry cleaner in the province to switch entirely to wet cleaning. A company in Regina, Busy Bee Cleaners, now offers both services. But with France and California moving to a total ban of perc in dry cleaning, the pressure may grow here to do the same.