It is officially summertime. With the nice weather kicking in, the number of car washes drastically increases. Across the country, people park their cars in their driveway or street and drag out the hose and soap. But these methods can have detrimental impacts on our environment. Fortunately, there are easy ways to accomplish your goals of achieving a shiny, clean car while avoiding the harmful effects on the environment and, hence, the community.
The primary, harmful effects of traditional home car washes are two-fold. First, the use of hoses significantly increases the amount of water that is used during the car wash, which leads to an unnecessary waste of our water supply. According to the EPA, using a hose for home car washes results in the use of approximately ten gallons per minute, compared to the few total gallons used with two buckets.
Not only does this waste a valuable natural resource, but it also increase your costs. Water bills around the country go up in the summer time as a result of home car washes.
The second harmful effect of the traditional home car wash has to do with run-off. Run-off from home car washes includes soap, detergents, mud, rubber, and grease. This run-off enters the storm-drains, which emtpy out into lakes, rivers, harbors and oceans.
The EPA recommends using a commercial car wash or, if trying to save money, use buckets without soap at home. If washing at home, the EPA recommends doing it in a grassy area or a driveway that empties into the grass or garden. If neither of these exist, consider asking friends to wash your car at their home, where more suitable conditions might exist.
I have adopted a method over the years that accomplishes these goals. I use two buckets of water and a sponge. I have found that soap is unnecessary. With a sponge, water and a few towels, you can make your car look just as shiny and clean as with soap or detergents.
By making a small change in how you wash your car at home, you can have a tremendous, positive impact on your community by helping preserve the precious water supply and keeping the waterways clean. But if that's not enough, consider the selfish benefit of this approach. The bucket method of water only saves you a tremendous amount of money on your water bills as well as soap/detergent supplies.
For more information and recommendations, check out the following website, which discusses EPA data and recommendations.
No comments:
Post a Comment