Looking for an Eco-Friendly Way to Clean Your Car? Take it to the Car Wash
The surprising benefits of a professional wash
As much as we’d like to be the type of person who wakes up early, grabs some buckets and a sponge at home, and spends a few hours giving their car a DIY wash, we often find ourselves pulling into a car wash business instead. It’s easy to feel guilty about taking the “convenient” route but in this case you don’t have to! It’s actually better for the environment to get a professional car wash rather than DIY! We break down the benefits of an automatic car wash below.
Whether you have a brand new car or your car has been with you for a decade and a few hundred thousand miles, chances are you want to take care of it. In addition to regular oil changes and tune ups, you need to give it a good cleaning. Washing your car isn’t just for looks. Over time your car accumulates dirt, oil, salt, and other grime. As well as being an eyesore, this debris can damage the performance of your car. Since we want to drive our car for as long as possible, washing it should be part of your normal car maintenance routine! But before you run to grab your hose and bucket- you might want to consider heading to your local car wash.
It’s common to think that going to the car wash is worse for the environment and too water intensive, when actually, the opposite is true. Car wash businesses use high powered nozzles to use as little water as efficiently as possible, and many businesses also have a system in place to catch and reuse old water (1). When you wash your car yourself, you probably just use a bucket filled with water and a hose. While your water usage may not seem that bad while you’re washing, it adds up fast. Individuals can use between 80 to 140 gallons of water to wash their car, but a car wash business only uses about 30 to 45 gallons of water (2)! Many car washes also recycle the water used, so the water can be used many times. Some states even require car washes to use recycled water; in California, car washes must use at least 60% recycled water (4). During one particularly tough drought season, a city in California went so far as to ban using potable water for at-home car washes and required car owners to go to a car wash to clean their car (5). If you are concerned about wasting water, ask your local car wash if they recycle water and try to go to one that does!
Another reason to consider using a professional car wash business is wastewater. When we wash our cars at home, we’re usually in a concrete driveway or on the side of the road and let the water run down to the sidewalk drains. But that water contains dirt, oil, heavy metals, and other harmful chemicals that accumulate during normal driving, and those sidewalk drains don’t go to a water treatment plant. Instead, that runoff is usually diverted directly into our watershed, which might to a lake, stream, or ocean and negatively impact aquatic wildlife and water quality (3). Professional car wash businesses are required by the Environmental Protection Agency to capture all wastewater and divert it into a sewage system. That means the water is safely processed through a water treatment facility and can be used for future car washes!
If you really want to wash your car at home, there are more eco-friendly options.
1. Look for cleaners that are biodegradable and phosphate-free, to minimize the potential for water contamination (3).
2. Make sure to dispose of any dirty water leftover in the buckets by dumping it down your sink, toilet, or bathtub instead of pouring it down your driveway.
3. Washing your car on an overcast, mild day can help save water, since it won’t evaporate as quickly.
4. Use reusable cloths to wash and dry your car.
References
- https://www.treehugger.com/eco-friendly-car-wash-4863509
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/top-10-water-wasters/
- https://cfpub.epa.gov/npstbx/files/KSMO_CarWashing.pdf
- https://www.carwash.com/law-requiring-carwashes-to-recycle-water-passed-in-ca/
- https://www.marketplace.org/2015/06/09/one-california-drought-winner-local-car-wash/