Patronize and Support Car Wash Facilities that Reclaim their Water
As everyone knows, washing your car on a regular basis will keep your car looking newer longer. Numerous environmental and weather driven factors affect the cleanliness of your vehicle and the frequency with which it must be washed. For instance, road salt in the winter, dust in the summer, pollen in the spring and leaves in the fall all not only dirty your car, but they act both as abrasive particles and as corrosives that attach themselves to the paint, penetrating and damaging the finish. Keeping your car clean will not only make it look nicer and newer, but it will also protect it from real damage that can be done over time.
There are really just two options for washing a car, either it do it at home by hand, or take it to a commercial car wash facility…whether it be self-serve or automatic. Many people think the way to give their car the best wash possible is in the driveway, at home. While giving your car a little TLC in the driveway may be a relaxing weekend activity, driveway washing is actually quite harmful to the environment. The runoff from your wash activities carries a tremendous amount of phosphorous from your soap, petrochemicals from the road film you’re washing off, and numerous other chemicals that are toxic to fish, and your runoff is draining into the storm sewer…meaning it ends up in the lakes and rivers. It is also important to note that washing your car in the driveway uses upwards of 100 gallons of fresh water.
Automatic car wash systems normally involve spraying and coating the car with some sort of aggressive chemical, followed by a friction cleaning process, a powerful blast of water, or a combination of both. Commercial car wash facilities are required to install appropriate drainage to the city sewer or a septic system, ensuring that these aggressive chemicals do not run off into the storm sewers, keeping them out of our lakes and streams. Commercial car wash facilities typically use anywhere from 30-80 gallons of fresh water per car, depending on a number of factors…most notably water reclamation.
In addition, many commercial car washes recycle and re-use their water with an on-site waste water treatment system (technically called a water reclamation system, or reclaim system for short.) Reclaim systems allow the car wash operator to save their water, treat it, and re-use it for more than one customer. This saves them lots of money on their water and sewer bills, and protects our water resources.
For the environmentally conscious consumer, these are the factors that you should take into consideration when you need to wash your car. You should avoid driveway washing at all costs, and if you must, it is far better to wash on the grass than in an area where your runoff will end up down the storm drain. The better option is to use a commercial car wash facility…preferably one that reclaims their water. This also serves to reward the car wash operator who puts in the extra time, money and effort to purchase and operate water reclamation equipment.
Reclaim Equipment Company offers the car wash industry several efficient and cost-effective water reclamation systems, reverse osmosis spot-free rinse systems and reclaim ready high pressure pump systems designed to help car wash operators reduce their overall water expenses and protect environment at the same time. Visit reclaimequip.com for more details.
About the Author
Reclaim Equipment Company is all about water reclaimation system such as reverse osmosis for car wash, wastewater recycling for car wash & RO car wash system.
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