While the Canadian Carwash Association (CCA) isn’t on a crusade to force people to stop washing vehicles on their driveways, it believes that highlighting the environmental risks could lead to better-informed choices.
According to Nathan Ewing, chair of the CCA’s environmental committee, many people are unaware of the possible adverse environmental impact of washing their cars at home as opposed to at commercial car wash facilities. But a public awareness effort launched by the CCA is designed to equip people with knowledge they can use to make more responsible decisions.
“Most people in our survey that we did really don’t see any difference environmentally between washing in the driveway and washing at the car wash,” explained Ewing in an interview with Carpages.ca.
“Most people think that the water goes to a treatment plant when it goes down one of those drains. Those are the people that we need to educate. We’re not about looking to ban driveway car washing. We want to provide the information to people so that they can make their own educated decision.”
CCA and advocacy group RiverSides are among the organizations trying to get people to think about the possible environmental risks associated with driveway car washing. Meanwhile, retailers such as Canadian Tire believe that there are effective and safe products that consumers can use to clean their vehicles at home.
The Survey Says
When the CCA first released some of the findings from the aforementioned survey, it found that public awareness of the possible dangers was low.
Among the finding were the following:
* 55% of respondents believe there is no difference environmentally whether they wash their vehicle in their driveway or take it through a car wash;
* 48% of respondents are unaware that most soapy water from driveway car washing ends up untreated in nearby lakes or rivers when it goes down storm drains; and
* 38% of respondents wash their vehicles in their driveway.
The Bigger Issue
Acknowledging that the survey data reveals that the CCA and its members have a lot of work to do, Ewing explained that people who believe that it’s okay wash their cars with products that are advertised as being environmentally friendly need to consider the bigger issue.
“In many cases the bigger issue is what’s coming off of the car,” said Ewing, who is also vice president and general manager of Transchem. “So when they’re washing their wheels, you’re getting brake dust, you’re getting carbon from there, you’re getting oils and grease, that type of thing. All those things that are coming off the car are going into those storm drains and into lakes, rivers, streams.
“On the flip side, on the professional car wash side, that wastewater, that effluent is going into the sanitary sewers. So it’s being treated.”
RiverSides Founder Kevin Mercer, who in an interview with Carpages.ca said that it is actually illegal in Toronto for people to wash their cars on their driveways, added that no environmentally-friendly car-cleaning soap products exist.
“There’s no such thing as environmentally-friendly soap,” explained Mercer. “Zero such product exists. Any soap that gets into the water body has the potential to damage surface adhesion – that slimy cover on fish. It will attach to that and lift it off. The real problem with soap is that it contains nonylphenol ethoxylates, a replacement for phosphates. It also causes algae growth.”
Environmentally-Friendly Options
Despite the controversy over car-care products sold by some retailers, Canadian Tire explained in an email interview with Carpages.ca that it is possible to find do-it-yourself (DIY) car wash products that are environmentally friendly. It added, in fact, that its Simple Green product line is perfect for people who want to clean their cars in a responsible manner.
“Canadians are increasingly becoming aware of their environmental foot print,” said Melissa Honour, category business manager, auto cleaning and auto body repair, Canadian Tire.
“In addition to value and quality, we are always looking for ways to bring eco-friendly choices to our customers. Our Simple Green line-up of products offer our DIY-minded customers – who choose to wash their vehicles at home – an effective and 100% biodegradable option.”
Where Things Stand & What Comes Next
Despite the the availability of products that the DIY crowd can get from store shelves, Ewing said that the CCA hopes that its efforts will help to facilitate change.
“We started this survey to sort of get a baseline as to where we’re at now — what is the general knowledge of the public across Canada,” he said.
“Our next step is to start an awareness campaign.…We just formed an alliance with WaterSavers out of the International Carwash Association. We’re going to work with our member operators to…meet the criteria to be a WaterSavers car wash, put up signage–and that signage will help educate the public. We also want to educate our members so that they can talk to their customers.”
The CCA is also working with various community groups, he said, adding that in about a year’s time the association plans to conduct a followup survey to see if its education strategy has paid off.
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Toronto Car Wash Services
The thing that car wash businesses need to note is that it’s better for the environment, in terms of reducing wastewater, to go to a car wash than do it at home.
That’s because today car washes increasingly have sophisticated wastewater treatment systems, whereas the average driveway just leads to run off…