Applied human practices: a study on the use and impact of PERC in Paris

Goals

Assay the state-of-the-art on the use of PERC in Paris.
Evaluate the effects of the prohibition of using PERC on a local level.
Evaluate the level of awareness on the danger of using PERC.
Gather information for the type of product the market is looking for.

Introduction

Perchloroethylene (aka tetrachloroethylene or PERC) is the main chemical found in products used for dry cleaning worldwide. It acts as a solvent to remove stains from all types of fabrics, since it is an excellent solvent for organic materials. It is volatile, highly stable and non-flammable, reasons for which it is so widely used in this industry. The big selling point of this chemical is that it is quite effective and quite cheap, which means that almost all dry cleaners throughout the globe use it daily. The problem is that PERC is quite toxic, both for humans and the environment. Because of all these reasons, the French government has set up to 2022 the complete banning of PERC from dry cleaning establishments situated close to residential areas. Similar laws had been already passed in Denmark and the USA.

Impact of PERC in Paris' dry cleaners

We interviewed face-to-face all dry cleaners in Paris with the aim of understanding how they would deal with the interdiction of this chemical, as well as assess their level of awareness of the dangers of PERC. We also aimed to understand what were their needs, to try to design a product that would help make their daily life easier.

Our survey (original questionnaire in French or translated version in English) allowed us to create a better suiting product, but it also allowed us to assess the level of awareness of the dry cleaners regarding the dangers of using PERC. The interesting thing about Paris is that the city is divided into 20 neighborhoods, the 20 arrondissements. This division is very interesting for our study because it allows us to make not only a statistical analysis of our data, but also a socio-economical one based on the differences in styles of living in each arrondissement.

250 dry-cleaners and hundreds of kilometres walked after, we got to know which are the most difficult stains to remove and which are the most problematic fabrics.
We also got to know their personal experiences on the use of PERC and the impact that the compulsory change would have on their business. We learnt that the already existing alternatives to PERC are not efficient enough.
Most of the dry cleaners expressed their concern over their business, being afraid that the new methodologies would result in a decrease of the quality of their services. Using the existing alternative to PERC means that it takes longer to remove the stains than it used to take when they used PERC. It also means that for the most difficult stains they need to use pre-washing products to be able to efficiently get rid of the stains.
We learnt that, among the most difficult stains to remove, red wine is a particularly difficult one to get rid off. This type of stains is especially difficult to remove without a trace on white fabrics, since it has very strong pigments. We therefore decided to focus on developing a pre-washing product for getting rid of the verrry Frrrrench red wine stains.

Results

Outline of the project

Text about the outline

Attributions

The Human Practices were designed by the entire team with the help of our advisors. Face-to-face interviews were carried out by Alicia, Allison, Antoine V., Antoine P. and Sébastien (due to the fact that speaking french was necessary to perform them). A big thank you to our advisors Jake and Jason for helping us analyse the results.

References

The list of the dry cleaners existing in Paris was obtained in the Yellow Pages (Pages Jaunes)
The statistics for each Arrondissement were obtained in the Mairie de Paris and in the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques