Friday at Look Sharp Dry Cleaners on Fairview Avenue.

After being in the dry cleaning business for nearly four years, Trae Hill began to think there had to be an alternative to using what is classified as a hazardous chemical to get clothes clean.

“The more I read about it, the more I knew there had to be a better way,” said Hill, owner of Look Sharp Dry Cleaners.

Hill believes he has found it with a new hydrocarbon cleaning process, which he said is gentle on both the environment and on clothes, but still cleans them. There are “greener” cleaning solutions, but they don’t clean clothes as well, he said.

“This is about as green as a dry cleaner can get,” Hill said.

Manager Angela Johnson said she feels comfortable working around the new cleaning chemicals that are used in makeup and other items “that you put on your body.”

Hill said the chemical still used by many dry cleaners, perchlorethylene, is a known carcinogen and is treated like a hazardous material if there is a spill.

A material safety data sheet for perchlorethylene said it can depress the central nervous system and that a recent study showed evidence of liver cancer in mice and rats exposed to the chemical, but there is no evidence of increased cancer risk in humans.

“It’s very tightly controlled … because it doesn’t break down if there is a spill,” he said of using perchlorethylene. “This product is biodegradable within days. Using it is smart, … responsible and is good for our employees and customers.”

Hill said the hydrocarbon cleaning process, which uses a cleaner that is a byproduct of diesel fuel, is widespread in California, where perc, as it’s called, has been outlawed.

The rest of the country, however, is slow to adapt to the process.

Granted, Hill did have to buy a new dry cleaning machine that cost $75,000, but he said the chemicals are actually cheaper. And as other green chemicals are developed, the new machine can easily adapt.

Hill purchased the machine in June but wanted to make sure it was working as it should and that he was satisfied with the process before making a public statement about its green properties.

“Customers have told me they can notice a difference,” Johnson said. “Their clothes don’t have that smell any more. This process is almost odorless.”

While the dry cleaning store was hot as you would normally expect, there was no odor in it on an afternoon after cleaning was finished for the day.

Customers were lining up to get their clothes that were covered in “green bags.”

“These are completely biodegradable,” Hill said. “They are supposed to break down within six months in a landfill or if they get into a stream.

“Many of our customers didn’t even want the bags on their clothes before this. They couldn’t imagine all of these going to a landfill,” he said. “I’m really surprised something wasn’t developed before now.”

Like many other area dry cleaners, Look Sharp is reusing the hangers that customers bring back in good shape and sends others to a recycling center.