Blog Post #1

Blog Post #1

Car washes have a very negative impact on the environment around them. The water falling off the vehicles contains all sorts of different chemicals from the rust, dirt and soap that it contains.

 

http://www.ridekleen.com/environmental-impact-of-the-car-wash/

 

The biggest problem with a car wash is the water drainage system. 40 gallons of water is used per car that is washed. This water is full of chemicals (sodium chloride, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate) that are released into the environment (soil, water, trees etc.) The drainage water from the car wash doesn’t always stay in the near by environment either; depending on where it’s located, it could very easily get into larger bodies of water and contaminate our drinking water. It doesn’t make sense to keep doing this when there are better and more efficient ways of washing cars that wouldn’t be nearly as harmful on the environment as a normal car wash is.

 

I would like to see a car wash that uses newer technology that recycles and cleans the water after every use. This would use a significantly smaller amount of water and release less harmful chemicals into the environment. It is also needless to have foaming soap and needless chemicals are used to make this happen.  The consumer feels better to see foamy soap but it creates more polluted water this way.

 

I think that the most compelling ethical issue raised in this article was how much water we waste. It said that we use around 40 gallons of water per car and on top of that we are then contaminating more water when we release the chemicals into the environment. I think if we used the high pressured mist technology to wash our cars like the article said then we would save a noticeable amount of water and money in the long run.