So I know it’s best to buy clothes that don’t have to be dry cleaned. But I still have a trenchcoat and some dry clean-only pants I bought in the follies of my youth.

Thus, my search for green dry cleaning, armed with a super informative SF Chronicle article. so it seems 80% of drycleaners use perchloroethylene, a hazardous air pollutant that LA dry cleaners are supposed to stop using by 2020. Gross.

The best alternatives: carbon dioxide cleaning and professional wet cleaning (scroll to the bottom of article for deets). I checked EPA’s list of cleaners offering either or both, but none were v. close by.

Undaunted — I remembered seeing a “Non-Toxic” sign at Green Cleaners, walking distance from my place. I ran over and dropped off my clothes.

Then I found out the place uses GreenEarth, a silicone-based solvent — The EPA’s not yet sure whether or not the stuff is a cancer risk.

Should I be concerned? I wasn’t gonna snatch my clothes back from this lil Korean mom & pop shop, so my trench and pants were siliconed clean this time for $10.90.

Luckily, I only need stuff drycleaned like once every other month — But I’m wondering if I should stay with Green Cleaners, or look harder for carbon dioxide / wet cleaning options –

Update, 10/16/06: Now living in Santa Monica, I’ve found a wet cleaning option in walking distance :)

Update, 1/21/07: The LA Weekly’s put together a nice roundup of the dry cleaning options, with a list of “where to wash.”

Update, 1/27/07: More fascinating drycleaning news: Perc’s on the way out! The Cali Air Resources Board voted to “ban the purchase of new perc machines as of 2008 and to phase out the use of all perc by 2023.”

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