Do Professional Car Washes Conserve Water? earth day In the article 13 Ways to Make Earth Day Everyday, Huffington Post mentions how a professional car wash is more efficient with water consumption than washing your car yourself. Furthermore, if everyone in the U.S. who washes their car themselves took just one visit to the car wash, we could save nearly 8.7 billion gallons of water.

How Do Professional Car Washes Conserve Water?

Most newer car wash facilities are able to conserve more water because of their fairly sophisticated water reclamation systems. These systems enable the car wash to re-use water many times over, allowing the car wash to only use fresh water when absolutely necessary (such as a final rinse) to ensure a clean, dry car. In other words, while many gallons of water are being used during the course of an average car wash, only 9 to 15 gallons of fresh water is introduced during any given wash cycle. That is at least a 65% reduction in water usage over home washing!

Water Conservation Is Only the Beginning

Besides conserving water, washing your car at the local professional car wash also preserves the environment! As many of you may know, washing your car at home or in a parking lot introduces harmful cleaning chemicals and phosphates into the storm drain and therefore rivers and streams, hurting the plants and animal life in that ecosystem. In contrast, professional car washes empty excess waste into the sewer where it belongs. Washing the car is certainly not as essential as a toilet or shower, but if you are looking for ways to reduce water, look no further than your local Valley Car Wash.