Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 25, 1993 TAG: 9307220038
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CELESTE KATZ
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"The cleaners are doing all they can to comply with this. It's not like we're trying to fight this. We agree with it. We're interested in the environment. We have to live in it, too." - Eddie Wheeler, Wheeler's Cleaners, Roanoke
"It's been really tough. We've even got equipment for our waste water, which years ago could just be poured down a drain. I can't say how much the regulations have cut into our profits, but we haven't really changed the prices to come up to date with what we really need. It's not just throwing clothes into the machine and pressing them and giving them back to you; it's the regulations we have to abide by." - Darrell Saunders, assistant manager, Vinton Dry Cleaners
"I'm getting ready to convert my cleaning machine over now; it'll probably cost around $50,000. We've been able to meet the air quality standards, but it's a struggle to maintain that with the equipment we have now. It was not made for that. But dry cleaning is strong right now, and it's worth it to me to invest in the new machinery." - Mike Taylor, A Cleaner World, Roanoke
"We all have been affected by it. Your costs have definitely increased. Filters which you used to be able to discard in the incinerator now have to be hauled away. One filter costs $55 to dispose of, and we dispose of six to eight at a time.
"The new equipment has been expensive, and so has the continued education to employees. When the government comes along and regulates you, if you don't pass the cost along to your customer - which you hate to do - you'll go out of business. It just eats you up, it really does. The government is regulating you to death on any business, really." - Joe Logan, manager, Peacock-Salem Launderers and Cleaners, Salem
"The average dry cleaner is a mom-and-pop operation, and from a cost standpoint they can't justify [buying the new equipment]. Potentially up to 25 percent of dry cleaners may go out of business - that would be older plants, say, those that have been in business for over five years. This would probably be the biggest thing that's come around recently, and in a lot of cases it's going to be prohibitively expensive. Most dry cleaners, as most small businesses, cannot afford to do it." - Bob Jones, president, Airlee Cleaners Inc., Roanoke, and a director of the Mid-Atlantic Cleaners and Launderers Association
"With the economy the way it is, and so many people out of work, the dry-cleaning business has been off for the past three years or so. A lot of businesses may be looking at some sort of hazardous-waste disposal fee on garments; we haven't started that yet. That would help recover the cost of the EPA saying that we have to dispose of our residues. Depending on how big you are, disposal might add $1,000 to $5,000 a year to your expenses. Either you eat it or you have to pass it on to the customer. It's a cost of doing business." - Bud Jones, president, Carter and Jones Dry Cleaners, Roanoke.
by CNB