ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996             TAG: 9610210026
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-5  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
SOURCE: Associated Press

THIS EARTH-FRIENDLY TREND IN DRY-CLEANING IS ALL WET

Step inside the Cleaner by Nature shop on Wilshire Boulevard, past the window display of antique washboards, dried flowers and green plants to racks of clean clothes on hangers.

Then sniff.

That's potpourri you smell in the air, not perchloroethylene, or perc, the cleaning fluid used by more than 80 percent of U.S. dry cleaners and the trademark odor that hits you as soon as you walk through their doors.

Cleaner by Nature owner Deborah Davis has traded the heavily regulated chlorine solvent for a high-tech variation on good old soap-and-water.

She runs one of about 10 ``wet cleaners'' that have sprung up around the country, targeting the emerging market of ecologically friendly products and services.

These cleaners rely on a computer-controlled washing machine that uses plain water, biodegradable soap, fabric conditioners and finishing to gently wash the dirt out of the unthinkably immersible: wool suits, silk wedding dresses, camel's hair coats. A computerized dryer stops before clothes get to be bone dry.

``In the past, cleaners took water out of the equation and substituted a solvent. Now we have the capability to control other factors so we can put water back into the equation,'' said Davis.

``Water is really the best cleaning solvent of all.''

Roy Steele, a Roanoke cleaner, said the the closest wet cleaning machine that he knows of is in Rocky Mount, N.C. Steele operates Vogue Cleaners & Laundry, which has eight locations around the Roanoke Valley, and Cardinal Equipment Co. on Melrose Avenue, which sells equipment to cleaners.

Steele has seen the new process and said that in most cases it cleans just as well as dry cleaning.

He said he plans to install one of the "wet cleaners" in his own business.

Several other cleaners in Western Virginia have shown interest in the new technology, Steele said.

That's because dry cleaners now are required under environmental protection regulations to operate closed systems that recycle cleaning fluids and recapture their fumes so they don't escape into the air. The prospect of tougher laws in the future make wet cleaning with its flushable, biodegradable soap an attractive alternative to traditional methods, Steele said.

The new system may also prove attractive to cleaning customers who have concerns about the environment, Steele said. One of the wet cleaning machines costs about $30,000 - about the same as a traditional dry cleaning machine, he said.

Many of the nation's 34,000 dry cleaners see wet cleaning as a potential adjunct - not a replacement - for what they do.

``If water were the solution to the problems of textiles, there would never have been a dry cleaning industry to begin with,'' said William Seitz, executive director of the 4,000-member Neighborhood Cleaners Association-International, a New York trade group.

After experimenting with wet cleaning, he cautions against pushing it as an all-purpose replacement for chemical methods, especially when improved equipment is making perc use more efficient and less polluting.

``There is nothing at the moment that does as good a job as perc does. Unless and until something comes along that's better, the industry is going to use it,'' he said.

But perc does have problems associated with it, prompting a concerted search for alternatives to the chemical classified as a hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

Perc can produce headaches and dizziness, irritate the eyes, skin and respiratory tract, and cause liver and kidney damage. It can spread into soil and groundwater from leaks, spills and sewer disposal, which prompted strict federal and state regulations..

Results compiled by the nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology indicate as much as 80 percent of dry clean-only garments can be successfully wet cleaned, said Jo Patton, manager of the center's Alternative Garment Cleaning Research Project.

``We think a lot of cleaners could do it and do it economically,'' she said.

Staff writer Greg Edwards contributed to this report.

LENGTH: Medium:   82 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Deborah Davis, owner of Cleaner by Nature in Santa 
          Monica, Calif., in front of a "wet cleaning" machine with a load of 
          dry-clean-only clothing inside. color.