A Better Car Wash

Reports on cars and the environment often miss mentioning one of the most common sources of automobile pollution—one that has nothing to do with engine size or exhaust filters. It turns out that we need to rethink our approach to spending Sunday afternoons washing the car. It may seem benign to vacuum your car, wash the dirt off and then buff it to a shine with creams or waxes, but the soapy suds that flow down your driveway to the sewer join storm water runoff and end up in a nearby lake or river. In cities such as Toronto or Chicago, that means your untreated, grimy water head straight into the Great Lakes, while in cities such as Pittsburgh or Montreal, the flow will join the St. Lawrence and Monongahela Rivers.

With that in mind, here are some green tips to keep your ride clean and green.

Not just water

While you might think that cleaning your car merely returns dirt to nature. But the problem is that car dirt is not ordinary dirt; it's a mixture of exhaust fumes, gasoline and motor oil mixed with lubricants, tar, suspended matter, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and micro-organisms. Add surfactants in soap that make it rinse off easily and you have quite a mix of chemicals.

Then there’s the water. On average, washing your car at home also uses up to 400 litres per wash. Plus, when the suds enter the water stream, the residue from heavier grade soaps can become a greasy pool for fish, coating their gills and causing them harm.

What you can do

You can lessen your environmental impact by using a biodegradable car soap like Simple Green (available at most Canadian Tire locations) or Ecover. You can also try washing your car on gravel, which will act as a natural filtration system for water before it rejoins the water table. It’s also best to use a bucket and sponge or using a spray nozzle on your hose that turns off when you’re not rinsing.

It may come as a surprise that the least polluting option is actually to visit a commercial car wash. These operations are typically not allowed to let rinse water run down into storm drains unless it's been treated as wastewater. They also use at minimum of 50 percent less water than the average home wash

The Ontario not-for-profit, RiverSafe launched a Carwash Campaign in 2003/2004 to prevent harmful pollution of lakes and rivers that results from home car washing. They advocate for stronger regulations and laws that specifically address all non-point source run-off, including car washing on residential properties. They suggest:

• Skip the detergents
• Try using only water
• Wash your car on the lawn (avoid driving over tree roots) to prevent wastewater from flowing down to the curb.

But by far the most interesting option is a waterless car wash using bio-based polymers and wetting agents that act as microscopic protectors on the car's surface. The polymers surround dirt molecules, lifting them from the paint surface before you even start to wipe! No-wet washes clean your car easily, but apparently the polymers create a sheen so your car looks waxed and buffed as well! Waterless products are available from ecotouch and Freedom.