National Clothesline

During Halloween weekend, the North East Fabricare Association will host its third annual Fall Fest at the Crown Plaza North Shore hotel in Danvers, MA.

The event, taking place on Oct. 30 and 31, will blend a series of informative educational sessions with vendor exhibits that offer all the latest and greatest drycleaning products and services available on the market today.

This year’s list of guest speakers for the weekend is an impressive one, including two columnists that regularly contribute for National Clothesline: Don Desrosiers and James Peuster.

Desrosiers, who has been active in the cleaning industry since 1978, is a workflow engineer and management consultant who advises shirt launderers and drycleaners throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Western Europe through Tailwind Systems.

Peuster, often referred to as “The Route Pro,” offers comprehensive training in all facets of pickup and delivery routes, including management, marketing and maintenance.

Also on the docket to offer presentations will be Diana Volmer and Jon Meijer.

Volmer is widely known throughout the industry for her role as managing director for Methods for Management, Inc., a consultancy that specializes in working with drycleaners to make them more profitable.

Meijer is a long-time stalwart of the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute in Silver Spring, MD. Currently, he serves as its vice president of membership.

Those planning on attending the event will want to make reservations at the Crowne Plaza North Shore as soon as possible. NEFA has secured a discounted room rate for show guests of only $129 per night.

Located just 30 minutes north of Boston, the Crowne Plaza is conveniently situated between major highways making it accessible to all of New England.

The hotel includes an 18-hole golf course on site as well as the Coco Key Water Resort.

In fact, attendees can upgrade for a room and up to four passes to the water park for only $159 per night.

For reservations, contact the hotel at (888) 233-9527 and mention your affiliation with NEFA’s Fall Fest 2010.

To find out more about the Coco Key Water Resort, visit the park’s official web site at www.cocokeywaterresort.com.

NEFA plans on updating its web site at www.nefabricare.com as more information on the conference becomes available.

For more information or to register, you can also contact the NEFA office by calling (800) 442-6848.

The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute, based out of the Rochester Institute of Technology, has announced a new program designed to cut down on the use of chemicals in the drycleaning industry.

To achieve that end, the institute plans on conducting a survey of New York-based cleaning businesses to identify the distribution of alternative solvents, the industry’s attitude towards them, obstacles that stand in the way of converting to wetcleaning.

Such data may be used to fuel the second part of the plan, which is to offer multiple demonstrations, training sessions and direct technical assistance to plants, the main goal of which will be to convert such businesses to professional wetcleaning processes.

The institute sees water as a more environmentally friendly way to clean and a way to reduce chemical use and regulatory costs.

Kate Winnebeck, manager of the wetcleaning program, told the Rochester Business Journal that drycleaning is an important source of jobs and economic development and provides a necessary service to society.

“However, the garment-cleaning process traditionally uses a number of environmentally sensitive chemicals,” she added. “Professional wetcleaning uses water as the cleaning solvent, creating a greener process, while also using less water and energy than conventional drycleaning.”

According to data distributed by the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, New York drycleaners currently use over 130,000 gallons of perc a year which results in more than 115 metric tons of chemical emissions into the atmosphere annually.

For information on the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute and its plans, go to www.nysp2i.rit.edu/wet_cleaning.html.