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The official Wet Cleaning Sign
With wet cleaning (also known as eco friendly dry cleaning) fast becoming the preferred mode of garment cleaning in many parts of the world, we thought it would be best to do a write up to highlight the 6 biggest benefits of wet cleaning, something which 1 Stop Wash continues to be at the forefront of.
From everyday consumers to fashion businesses, there’s no end to this new demand for wet cleaning. No one should be mistaken and just see this as the dry cleaning industries token effort to join the green energy revolution, businesses like 1 Stop Wash hope to have a real and lasting impact which can help clean up this essential and much needed service.
Rather, this is in response to the use of harmful and toxic chemicals like PERC over the past century and which is still being used by so many high street dry cleaners.
Have you walked out of your local dry cleaner with your garments having quite a chemical like smell? This is most likely the smell of one of the chemicals cleaners use to combat stains.
The average traditional dry cleaner on the high street uses chemicals like PERC, EDTA, and phosphates and these have ben found to contribute to the emergence of cancer and other debilitating diseases which are absorbed into the body the wearing of clothes overtime. Due to this, 1 Stop Wash boldly made the decision in 2015 to invest in the latest technology to deliver eco-friendly dry cleaning to our local community and in turn becoming one of the first in London to introduce this service.
What is Wet Cleaning/Eco-Friendly Dry Cleaning?
To begin with, wet cleaning centres on the use of not only environmental friendly cleaning agents, but also chemicals that pose little to no health risks. In addition to this, it utilizes less energy and water, hence reducing the overall environmental impact.
Wet cleaning uses toxin-free detergents and water to effectively remove grime and dust without harming the texture or colour of the fabric. To read a more detailed post on how the eco friendly dry cleaning process at 1 Stop Wash works then click here.
At 1 Stop Wash, we utilize wet cleaning to ensure that our clients get the best out of their fabrics with no compromise to their health.
We introduced this in 2015 when we decided to offer dry cleaning to our customers, with the health and environmental benefits of wet cleaning, it was a no brainer for us and this has gone on to be one of our best decisions we have ever made.
Now that you know how wet cleaning works, let’s move on to the main theme of this post: the benefits of wet cleaning!
What Are The Benefits of Wet Cleaning?
Reduced Health Risks
Why don’t we start with the major reason why many customers are switching to wet cleaning from traditional dry cleaning.
As mentioned earlier, wet cleaning is free of volatile organic compounds that pose a plethora of health risks such as eye and skin irritation, headaches, and even in some cases: cancer. In fact, high exposure to these toxic chemicals can lead to lung or kidney damage too.
More research is being conducted by the EPA regarding this as the toxic chemical of PERC continues to get banned in a number of states and countries; in the US, the use of PERC within residential buildings has been banned for the above health risks.
Alternatively, wet cleaning removes the exposure to these health risks as they use biodegradable non-toxic detergents instead.
This adding to the fact that wet cleaning is more water-based means not only your health is better off, but the lifetime of your garment is also increased as it provides it with a more gentle wash whilst bringing better results than traditional dry cleaning.
Better Air Quality!
There’s a certain allure when you breathe in the fragrance of detergents like PERC on your clothes. Well the truth is that you stand the risk of inhaling toxic chemicals when you inhale these synthetic fumes.
Since our eco friendly dry cleaning products are mostly plant-based, they have no strong or powerful odours that can trigger allergies. What’s more? The biodegradable detergents used in wet cleaning contain little to no chlorine-based compounds which is found to be responsible for ozone layer depletion.
With this sustainable approach to dry cleaning, you reduce the chances of not only inhaling harmful chemicals, but you also reduce the rate of global warming. Here at 1 Stop Wash, sustainability is one of our core focuses and we strive to work on all parts of our business to bring our customers the most efficient service.
Wet Cleaning Removes Stains Better
1 Stop Wash are Miele Professional approved WetCare Specialists
The possibility of a better alternative to remove those hard stains is an added bonus to wet cleaning. Most dry cleaning shops use PERC, a cleaning agent, to remove any type of stains. However, this residue of this chemical in washed clothes reverses the stain removal process, hence, making the stains prominent again. With wet cleaning, you can expect the following benefits for your clothes:
- Cleaner clothes compared to traditional dry cleaning. Much cleaner clothes. Seriously, it is way cleaner!
- Wet cleaned garments don’t develop that yellowish look you commonly find on garments that have been continually cleaned with PERC (used by most dry cleaners)
- Garments don’t come home with built-up residual amounts of harmful chemicals like PERC
- Clothes don’t have that smelly ‘dry cleaned’ smell (from PERC)
- Garments fade less, the lifetime of the garment is increased as they don’t incur as much damage from repeated cleanings.
Less Ground Water Contamination
Harmful cleaning agents like PERC, are released into the environment after a dry cleaning process. Since these chemicals are often not bio-degradable, they accumulate in plants and wildlife. These toxins subsequently raises the toxic levels in the ecosystem. With time, the water bodies will become too toxic for even aquatic life to live in. Alternatively, the cleaning agents in eco friendly dry cleaning, are plant-based and are easily assimilated into the environment.
Saves Energy and Water!
The wet cleaning method leverages 21st century technology that monitors water levels through out the cleaning process and only uses what is needed to best remove stains and grime.
More so, wet cleaning a short spinning time and therefore it saves on the overall energy consumed. Wet cleaning is consequently much more energy efficient and results in a reduced carbon footprint for the cleaner and yourself.
Eliminates Cleaning Waste
Lastly, wet cleaning doesn’t generate any hazardous waste that needs to be disposed of, unlike traditional dry cleaning where operators must dispose of PERC chemicals, bottles used to consume/store PERC, contaminated water and soiled wipes mixed in several chemicals.
Wrapping Up
Dry cleaning in London is gradually becoming more sustainable with the introduction of eco friendly dry cleaning methods like wet cleaning. 1 Stop Wash is at the forefront of this change as we were one of the very first companies to introduce wet cleaning to the masses back in 2015. Now, we are now on a mission to spread the message all around London and greater parts of the UK. Be a part of our campaign to bring more awareness to the benefits of eco friendly dry cleaning/wet cleaning by sharing this on any social media platform such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc.
If you have never heard of wet cleaning before, comment below, we’re excited to see how many people we are educating on this subject! Alternatively, if you have any questions below, post them and we will reply to them!
In addition, if you are interested in getting your clothes professionally wet cleaned, call us on 0207 837 4997 or book a pick up to get freshly cleaned clothes in less than 48 hrs. Why not also check out all of the services we offer including personalised laundry services and 5 star rated eco friendly dry cleaning services.