Use a Commercial Car Wash

Instead of washing your car with a hose and bucket, use a commercial car wash. Commercial car washes are not only equipped with water-saving technologies but are also required by the government to treat their wastewater.

The typical 15-minute car wash with a garden hose uses about 105 gallons of water. Most of this water becomes soapy, grimy runoff, which flows untreated into streams, lakes, or wetlands, where it can threaten aquatic life.

By choosing a commercial car wash, especially one that recycles and reuses rinse water, you are helping to conserve nearly 100 gallons of water per wash.

If for the next car wash every car owner who currently washes a car at home chose to go to a water-recycling car wash instead, the savings would total more than 4 billion gallons-enough water to give every registered vehicle in the U.S. two free washes.

H20use
U.S. Census
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
International Carwash Association