Reusable Dry Cleaning Bag Cuts Down Single Use Plastic
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden 
on 11. 2.08
Sometimes it is hard to know whether a new product is an actual innovation or just an obvious idea trying to look good.
Such is Green Garmento - a reusable dry cleaning bag - it switches from duffel bag to haul laundry to suit bag to bring home the garments. But will dry cleaners comply? And - do we need more plastic (though it is 100 percent recycled polypropylene) at $10 a bag in order to bring our dry cleaning back and forth? Well, purists will say we should just stop conventional dry cleaning altogether - which isn't remotely green.
But when we are looking at 300,000,000 - that's three hundred million - single use plastic bags going into U.S. landfills each year, then perhaps the Green Garmento is a positive transition away from dry cleaning plastic clogging up landfills and endangering wildlife. The Green Garmento bags are hardy and will last for many trip back and forth, hopefully to the greenest dry cleaner (no perchloroethylene), and the bag can double as a duffle when not in use as a suit carrier. Via: Green Garmento
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If people were more aware of the harm that dry cleaning does to the environment and our health, perhaps the whole business would be obsolete! But for those who continue to purchase dry-clean only clothes, this re-usable bag is a start.
As I'm (with my wife) the creator of THE GREEN GARMENTO, I wanted to thank April and Treehugger for writing about our product. We're trying our best, and in fact you can help... if your readers send us an email with the contact info of their drycleaner, we'll send them a free Green Garmento.
"Be fantastic, use less plastic!" thegreengarmento.com
I was surprised to find the GreenGarmento bags on your site. As the originator of the reusable dry cleaning bag – which I created 19 years ago and have marketed as The Clothesnik - I am familiar with the GreenGarmento bag which is not worthy of Treehugger's eco-friendly standards. These petroleum-based bags possess a chemical toxicity that leeches into our landfills as they degrade - making them far worse than any dry cleaning chemical. What's more, they do not wash or dry completely further defeating the purpose of a green reusable product. My original purpose of the reusable dry cleaning bag – which has been acclaimed by the green market - was to eliminate plastic used by dry cleaners not to "substitute" one plastic with another.
I hope you will look hard at these inexpensive knock-offs which seek to market a slick item under the guise of environmental efficiency and altruism. These sorts of items do more harm than good.
Jane Wyler
Founder/President
www.reuseniks.com
I work for my uncle who owns a dry cleaning plant in Texas. We've been looking at reusable dry cleaning bags for some time and he now uses The Green Garmento for all of his customers' clothes because they are affordable and water resistant. He looked into a cotton bag years ago from a company out of Chicago but they were really expensive and not water resistant. There's also another company in Chicago that does reusable dry-cleaning bags but they don't hold as many clothes and there's a huge dry-cleaner supply company in the US that carries a similar bag in Nylon (but no carry strap, so very hard to carry around). We also found a woman called The Bag Lady who does smaller garment bags with handles.
I know Whole Foods and all the other grocery stores use the same fabric as Green Garmento which is another reason why they are popular among dry cleaners.
I can't speak to the leaching problem but I know The Green Garrmento will take all bags back and recycle them for you. According to recycling info, those bags can be recycled unlike the nylon bags we found.
I think it's great that so many people are starting to produce these bags. The more the better so many people will jump on the bandwagon and stop using plastic dry-cleaning bags!