Commercial cleaning service may be classified into laundry using water and dry cleaning using organic solvents. The latter has become predominant because of its adaptability to a wide variety of clothes. Statistics published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare shows that about 43,000 commercial dry cleaning machines were in operation in Japan in 2002. Consumption of chlorine-based solvents is decreasing because of its potential carcinogenicity and consequently more stringent regulations. Most of Japanese dry cleaning machines have thus adopted petroleum-based solvents. The process needs a drying step where energy corresponding to an estimated 1.23 million kiloliters of crude oil is consumed and an estimated 320 thousand kiloliters of the solvent is released to the air.
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