Are you Green?

I was listening to the John Tesh radio show the other day and…okay…I know. Yeah, I can’t believe I said that out loud either. Let me begin again. I tuned to the local adult contemporary station in Cedar Rapids, IA the other day and heard something pretty significant. Well, let me start off by saying that it wasn’t my idea. I was on the phone with a friend of mine, laughing about how I was in Cedar Rapids and in trying to get me to look on the bright side, they wikipedia’d (yeah, we’ll make that a verb, just like Googled) Cedar Rapids and found some radio stations. I had made the comment that I was content to leave the radio of my Ford Explorer rental on the rock station that it was already set to when I got in. That was probably also due in no small part to the fact that it was -6 degrees and I neither wanted to take off my gloves nor move make any unnecessary movements other than to crank the heat up. Actually, the heat was already up, but it was blowing cold air. “I’m not even going to waste my time looking for a jazz station,” I quipped after arriving at my hotel and thinking about the impending ride to a dinner restaurant for that evening. This looked like a southern rock, country music kind of town, and that was fine. I needed some time to get back in touch with my inner Lynyrd Skynyrd anyway, lest I get too comfortable and not have my wits about me (as if “comfortable” were a possibility in subzero temperatures. The jazz station turned out to be really good when I finally tuned into it. That’s the good thing about jazz; you can always count on a local college or NPR station to carry some, even in Nowheresville. But I was saying that I was listening to the Adult Contemporary station, remember?

So, after the initial chuckle and “are you serious?” moment I had at the mention of John Tesh’s name and hearing his ol’ Entertainment Tonight self serving as disc jockey during this time slot, and starting to reach for the tuner, John caught my attention. No, he didn’t start singing because that wouldn’t have done it. I might’ve had to look around to make sure that nobody was going to catch me listening to a John Tesh song on the radio. That would be right up there with bumpin’ David Hasselhof in the Jeep. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, Dirk. ..just not how I roll. So anyways, John was having a Cliff Clavin moment, and delivering a little known factoid for the day. Not being a regular listener to this clearly syndicated show (well, maybe not...who knows…maybe J.T. does live in Cedar Rapids) I didn’t know if this was a regular feature or just something he felt like doing. Either way, I’m glad he did. He gave a “did you know” type fact about dry cleaning and the deadly chemicals used in restoring your clothes to glory.

Apparently, there’s this chemical called perchlorate (perc for short) that is used in the majority of cleaners around the globe that contains carcinogens (causes cancer). While it was a bit alarming, it was not at all surprising, instantly sending my mind on a journey aboard the “I wonder why so many of us die young when our grandparents generation lived much harder lives ” train. He went on to say that most cleaners knowingly use this stuff because many of these mom n’ pop establishments are too cash strapped to upgrade to more expensive, yet healthier and more modern machinery.

So how do we protect ourselves? Well, first, he urged us to make it a habit to immediately take the clothes out of the plastic once you get them home so that they can air out. He stressed that airing them out in your closet is not sufficient. This is when the alarms started to go off in my head. I thought about my closet and the half dozen plastic bags full of shirts and suits (and some empty) that I had in there and how this could be polluting the air in my condo. I could be wilting away one breath at a time, even in the comforts of my own home. How terrible is that? I exercise daily, try not to each too much junk (save for an occasional Garbage Burger in an airport  ) and more often than not shop in the organic aisle and I could be overlooking a deadly killer right in my own home. Frightening, to say the least. The second thing that John suggested was to locate a “Green” dry cleaner. He said that it’s not usually too difficult to find one in your area and that these places usually even advertise their environmentally conscious cleaning practices.

I had hardly spent a solid waking hour in my place since I returned home Thursday night, so I hadn’t had a chance to think about my household errands yet. But today was that day. I got online and started my search for a Green dry cleaner. I must confess that I thought there would be so many more options available to me, being so close to the tree-hugging capital of the world. I did find one that was about 2 miles away though, so my searched ended there. It was already 430pm so I immediately called to see where they were located and when they closed. They closed at 5pm, so I had to hustle. I grabbed the bag of clothes that I had and headed for the door.

This place was like no other dry cleaner that I had ever been to before. There was a seating area with comfortable chairs, and contemporary magazines (Vibe, GQ, et al), nice carpet and some music playing. It felt more like a cool clothing store or a hair shop than a dry cleaner. The little guy , Quan, that emerged from the back after my walking through the door was clearly the keeper of this vibe, dressed smartly in what I’ll term old skool chic, looking like a hip-hop newsboy, with his grey kangol tilted to the side. Every other cleaner I had ever been to wreaked of some foul combination of smells, from the machines and the poor ventilation or maybe some pigeons that had set up shot in the awning above the front door of one place. So this place was quite refreshing.

When I got back home, I proceeded to get rid of all that plastic in my closet and rushed it down to the trash chute down the hall. I aired the clothes out for hours before returning them to the closet. Hopefully, I’ve averted the onset of any life threatening illnesses in the process. If you’re one that makes frequent trips to the dry cleaner, I urge you too to look for a Green alternative. But why stop there? Perhaps an investigation of other ways to patronize Green businesses might be something good to check out in 2008.