People who send their clothes out for dry cleaning may have noticed some suble differences in the quality of their returned clothes.

Think brights that stay brighter, zippers that don't lose their zip and a distinct lack of that persistent, drycleaning smell.

This summer, Busy Bee Cleaners in Kelowna's Spall Plaza, which also serves Peachland IGA and Wash Tub Laundromat at the Westbank Town Centre Mall, replaced its drycleaning equipment with a new machine that uses environmentally safe sluid instead of the regular, chemical cleaner.

Now, instead of cleaning clothes in the industry standard, perchlorethylene ("perc"), a substance now considered to be toxic by Environment Canada, owner Ian Blackford using something call EcoSolv, a non-toxic, odourless substance that claims not to pollute the air, soil or water.

"What we're really blowing our horn about is the idea that people never had a choice in cleaning, but now they do," said Blackford.

Busy Bee is the first drycleaner in the area Blackford knows of to use the alternative cleaner, but he predicts that others will change over in the next couple of years, as Environment Canada clamps down on substances and amounts used. New regulations wwere set last Feburary and serious policing of records will begin as early as this January, he said.

While Blackford's change was motivated largely by a desire to go green, he says there are other advantages to using EcoSolv. Becaus the fluid is not as harsh as perc, it's less likely to fade vibrant colours. Complaints about ziipers not going up and down as easily after drycleaning will also be diminished, since the more gentle substance won't strip them of their lubrication.

And since it's lighter than water (perc is heavier), the machines don't have to work as aggressively to get the clothes clean, leaving them feeling softer and lasting longer.