Reusable garment bags for drycleaning

Abstract

A cleaner environment is promoted by halting the use of one-time disposable packaging materials which are destined to end up in municipal landfills already strained to capacity and by substituting reusable or recyclable materials in their stead. The present invention provides a reusable carrier bag for dry cleaning, which is convertible between a first orientation of use wherein it serves as a duffel bag like carrier for collecting and carrying dirty clothing to the dry cleaners. After the clothing is cleaned and pressed and hung on a hanger, the reusable dry cleaner bag in a second orientation of use serves as a protective covering for the cleaned items for the return trip from the cleaners to the home. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the reusable dry cleaner bags, once assigned to a customer, are themselves dry cleaned with each customer load. The preferred dry cleaner bags also include hanger holding means for accumulating and managing empty hangers to be returned to the dry cleaner for re-use. The new and improved dry cleaner bags of the invention will substantially reduce or eliminate the solid waste problem caused by the non-biodegradable poly bags and hangers previously simply thrown away by each dry cleaning customer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.