We are looking into every aspect of our business to work out how we can reduce the impact on the environment of us all. There are four main areas we are working on:
Carbon Neutral Chemicals Plastic Bags Hangers
Carbon Neutral – Our van has been carbon neutral for a while now. We are currently assessing the carbon footprint of the rest of our operations and will be working to offset all our activities in the near future.
Chemicals – This is quite a tricky area. The industry standard ('perc'), used by about 85% of the industry, is highly effective. Our dry cleaning machines have stills and condensers on the back (which makes up about 2/3rds of the size of the machine so almost all the ‘perc’ is recovered clean, recycled and reused).
We take great care to regularly clean, service and maintain the machine to ensure maximum efficiency with the main aim being the protection of the environment. We also keep careful records for each and every load to monitor the machine’s efficiency.
All dry cleaning does have some effect on the environment, but we work hard to make sure ours makes the least impact possible. We continue to review the situation, and would change to another system if it proved to be more environmentally friendly.
Plastic Bags/Garment Wrap – In order to keep your garments in the best condition they need to be protected by something or other. If they weren’t then they would be creased and possibly marked when either you or us are transporting them.
We have looked into, and trialed a number of alternatives to plastic but must admit that we haven’t yet found a good alternative. If anyone has any suggestions we would dearly love to hear them.
Hangers – Those pesky metal hangers. Actually we think we have found a superb environmentally friendly alternative. Watch this space for more.
In the meantime more and more of our customers are now returning hangers to us. This only saves us pennies, but reusing all that metal saves the planet loads. Many of our customers want to help us and its great to know we share the same values.
