Environmental No-no: Car-washing in the Driveway
You may not have heard it before, but believe it or not, where you wash your car actually affects the environment. Although less people know about it, washing our cars in our driveways is actually an environment-unfriendly move. Why? The water that runs off your car when you wash it by the driveway goes right into storm drains and flow through to the rivers and wetlands, poisoning aquatic life and causing havoc to the ecosystem. Hence, it is much better to take your car to carwash facilities, as these places usually have proper, computer-controlled sewage systems that treats wastewater before it is dispatched to the outside waters. Such system is also a requirement under federal laws in both U.S. and Canada.
Sometimes washing your car at home is unavoidable, especially if you have time and/or money constraints. If you really must wash it by your own in the garage or driveway, use a biodegradable soap specially formulated for automotive parts. It is still best, however, to avoid washing your car in the garage and better to wash it on the lawn or over dirt. Such allows the toxic car waste to be absorbed and neutralized in the soil before it flows to the great aquatic outdoors.
