Car Washing

The three principal areas of environmental impact resulting from car washing are the contamination of surface water, as the substances used to wash the car are rinsed off and drain into local water sources such as rivers; contamination of soil and groundwater, as a result of surface runoff; and the use of water and energy. Washing one's car at home (or at a car-wash fund-raiser in a parking lot) is actually likely to have a greater effect than using a professional car wash, the industry of which has actually made significant strides in reducing its environmental impact. Professional car washes often use water reclamation systems—cleaning and recycling the water used to wash cars to reduce water waste. In some cases this is required by local regulations, but in many others it is simply practical and has been since long before the current push for greater environmental awareness. Car washes also use high-pressure devices that minimize the amount of water needed to wash a car compared with the traditional sponge, bucket, and hose method you may use in your driveway. Furthermore, surface water contamination is less common with professional car washes. In the United States, for example, the Clean Water Act requires that a car wash treat its wastewater before disposing of it, instead of letting it run off into the soil. Further reductions of environmental impact are found in green carwashes.

Surface water contamination is less common with professional car washes, because regulation requires treatment of such wastewater before it is released

Source: iStockphoto

Although most detergents used for washing cars at home are harmful to surface water and groundwater, having unacceptably high levels of the toxic metals antimony, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, lead, and thallium, and often also having high levels of chloride and naphthalene, there are a small number of brands of green biodegradable car-washing detergent. These are an especially beneficial alternative if the car [Page 44]is parked on a lawn or other dirt area, so that soil's natural capacity for neutralizing toxins will come into play, instead of letting the water run over pavement and concrete until finding a storm drain. Similar detergents are used by environmentally responsible, green car washes, which is particularly significant because many of the detergents that have typically been used by touchless car washes contain harsh corrosives. Even biodegradable detergents are toxic to surface water, and the nutrients used to make your car shine (typically nitrogen and phosphorous) can lead to algae blooms and spikes in bacterial growth in streams and lakes, whereas other substances poison the fish and other aquatic organisms. Detergents of all sorts can harm fish by damaging the natural oils of their gills, making it harder for them to breathe. Damage to the mucus membranes may occur, and damage to fish eggs begins at much lower concentrations than it takes to poison adult fish. Some surfactants also can break down in the water into hormone-mimicking compounds that disrupt the growth and development of fish and other aquatic species.

Green car washes use various methods to operate a more sustainable business. Better-than-standard filtering equipment can reclaim 100 percent of the water used, for instance, using fresh water only for the final rinse. This brings the amount of water used for each car to about eight gallons, down from the 15, 25, or even 70 gallons per car used by other methods, according to studies made by the International Carwash Association.

...