Dirty Laundry: The Toxic Heritage of Dry Cleaning in Indianapolis, Indiana

Abstract

This chapter explores the narratives of that dry cleaning pollution and the ways it both resists and registers as toxic heritage. It focuses on the intersections of laundry, labor, racialized bodies, and the environmental harm that decades of use of perchloroethylene (PERC) and other solvents have created for laundry workers and across urban and suburban landscapes. Through an analysis of narratives produced by industry, dry cleaning workers, environmental regulatory and advocacy organizations, and formal cultural heritage institutions, the chapter interrogates ideas of environmental amnesia, toxicity, and responsibility in an industry that was dispersed throughout residential neighborhoods and that created contamination that is typically underground and invisible. It also illuminates how this invisible contamination may be made visible through activist archives, journalism, and participatory heritage in collaborations between the university and communities affected by PERC and other industrial contamination. The investigation speaks to toxic heritage as a central legacy of the Anthropocene and as an opportunity for activist, public-facing environmental humanities to raise awareness and support dialogue about environmental risks.