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Trash Talk: Dry Cleaner Plastic Waste 2

Dry Cleaned Clothes

Trash Talk is a special section where we expose the unnecessary waste that is generated by companies so that the urban country staff and readers can speak out to make a difference.

I typically pay a visit to the Dry Cleaners about once a month to launder certain shirts (Let’s save the discussion about the impact that dry cleaning has on the environment for another article). Since the very first day I stepped foot in the dry cleaners, I couldn’t believe how much plastic waste is generated to simply cover the clothing.

A year ago I started to bring the plastic covers back to the dry cleaner so that my dry cleaner could re-use them. It very soon became apparent that he was simply disposing of them for me instead of re-using them.

A few months ago, my girlfriend Han had the simple (but great) idea to get a clothes cover and bring it to the dry cleaner so that they wouldn’t have to waste plastic. When I brought the plastic cover to the dry cleaner, he didn’t realize why I was bringing it and simply threw it into a pile of other covers.

I had to explain to him that I’d like to use the clothes cover instead of wasting plastic. Apparently this is not a common practice except for people who transport suits with them while they’re traveling.

One purpose of The Urban Country is to inform others (and ourselves) about how we can help reduce our impact on the environment. Using a re-usable clothes cover is a simple step that we can all do to help reduce waste.

I dream of the day that the dry cleaners will completely eradicate themselves from using disposable plastic covers. Until then, let’s all try to do our part to eliminate our own waste.

2 thoughts on “Trash Talk: Dry Cleaner Plastic Waste

  1. David Rooney May 21,2012 5:44 am

    It’s amazing how many people just don’t “get” being green, in fact when you attempt to do so, they think you’re being difficult or weird!

  2. David Rooney May 21,2012 10:44 am

    It’s amazing how many people just don’t “get” being green, in fact when you attempt to do so, they think you’re being difficult or weird!

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