Garment & Textile Care Partnership Overview and Goals

Begun in 1992, the Garment & Textile Care Partnership promotes environmentally benign technologies for garment and textile care through a systems approach to the development, manufacture, distribution, and care of garments and textile products.

Involves  EPA representatives and stakeholders from industry, labor, community action and environmental groups, trade associations, and research organizations. By joining EPA in its commitment to safer, cleaner technologies, professional cleaners can maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Like businesses, consumers also benefit from understanding how their everyday choices affect the environment. As people better understand how the product design and manufacturing process affects the environment, they will be able to make responsible decisions that benefit themselves, their families, and their communities.

Specific goals of the partnership were to:

• Identify and inform industry about environmentally preferable cleaning technologies.
• Encourage research and development of new technologies.
• Facilitate technology evaluation and information sharing.
• Educate professional cleaners and consumers about safer alternatives to traditional solvents.
• Promote the adoption of cleaning processes that minimize exposure to chemicals.

EPA believed this approach would allow the DfE Garment and Textile Care Partnership to retain a leadership role in effecting fundamental change despite the many scientific, technological, and political uncertainties.

History of the Garment & Textile Care Partnership

DfE worked in partnership with the drycleaning industry. With more than 30,000 commercial shops in neighborhoods and malls across the country, drycleaners are one of the largest group of chemical users that come into direct contact with the public. Because of the potential health and environmental concerns associated with perchloroethylene, or “perc,” a chemical solvent used by most drycleaners, EPA and stakeholders from the drycleaning industry and public interest groups worked together to evaluate other cleaning process controls and technologies.

The project partnership was established to encourage the development and incorporation of environmentally preferable cleaning methods that professional cleaners can offer to their customers while maintaining or increasing economic viability. Initial efforts focused on the development and evaluation of new cleaning methods, the development of training materials, and the publication of helpful information for the shop.

In 1998, the partnership expanded to explore how decisions made by other industries — such as textile manufacturers, textile and garment designers, retailers, and consumers — affect the incorporation of environmentally preferable methods into professional cleaning operations. These issues have resulted in the GTCP incorporating a life-cycle approach, emphasizing the importance of upstream industrial decisions and trends that impact garment care process choices.

The Garment and Textile Care Partnership worked with partners on gathering, generating, and analyzing technical data; promoted the implementation of cleaner technologies information through education and assistance; and communicated project information though outreach activities. The GTCP encouraged new technologies and explored related industries that might have provided opportunities to expand on the successes of the drycleaning industry partnership.

Findings & Accomplishments of the Garment & Textile Care Partnership

The drycleaning industry made great strides in environmental improvements in recent years. Since the 1992 inception of the Garment and Textile Care Partnership, the use of perc has declined significantly, as illustrated in the following chart showing annual perc use by the U.S. drycleaning industry (supplied by TCATA, the Textile Care Allied Trades Association.)

 Perchloroethylene: Pounds Sold & Estimate of Imports Used 1987 – 2006

Green Apple Cleaners

Sundance Channel Big Idea Contest VIDEO

Newtown Pippin Apple SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

CO2 v. Organic Cleaners Battle of the Green Claims VIDEO

Spotted: Green Apple Cleaners in Gossip Girl Second Life Machinisode

VIDEO: Green Apple Cleaners in Gossip Girl Machinisode

Tetrachloroethylene or Perchloroethylene (Perc) & Dry-Cleaning BASICS

EPA: Design for the Environment (DfE)

Cleaning Clothes & Fabrics with Carbon Dioxide and the Solvair Hybrid System