We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.
-Thomas Fuller
When we first moved in to this house we heard peepers every night in our little vernal pool. (Spring peepers are tiny frogs with big voices; you can hear them singing here.)
The next spring I eagerly awaited the peepers, having learned what they were (city girl born and bred, I knew nothing of wildlife and its calls until I moved out here). And I heard them down at the creek at the end of our road, but I didn’t hear them in my yard. And I haven’t heard them since.
I’ve thought and thought about it, and my thoughts point to all the times we washed our car near that pond. All that runoff.
This specific experience was what prompted my firm decision to “go green,” and out of that this blog was born.
Now, I’ll start by saying that my instinct is to think that rain is enough to wash my car. I couldn’t care less about how my car looks. But my brother, a former mechanic, says that car washes are important to keep rust from happening and stuff like that— helping to preserve the resale value and whatnot. (Although I plan to hand my minivan off to my children as they start driving. This thing is probably never going to see a second owner.)
In most instances, the green way of doing things coincides with the DIY lifestyle, but car washing is one exception. Washing your car at home with a garden hose uses about 7 gallons of fresh water every minute, amounting to nearly 100 gallons of water in 15 minutes.
But car washes enrolled in the WaterSavers program (meaning they meet certain environmental standards) use 40 gallons of water per car, max, in conveyor and in-bay/rollover systems. Self-service washes in the program use 3 gallons of water or less per minute.
Given that there are over 110 million registered vehicles in this country, if everyone switched to professional car washes that’s a savings of a hella lotta water. AND, car washes in the WaterSavers program treat and recycle their water, keeping it from poisoning our waterways and spring peepers.
There are more than 800 WaterSavers car washes across the U.S. and Canada; check to see if there’s one near you.
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‘Fess up, now. How often do you wash your car?
I don’t wash my car enough. It was recently attacked my a mob of birds on Miralax. Took me a couple of months to take it to the carwash.
One of the few things that I can praise Vegas for is the carwashes. Most are VERY green. This is a very water smart city since we are in the desert and in a constant drought. I don’t know of any carwashes near my house that don’t recycle their water. Now, if we could get the casinos to put recycling bins out, I’d be amazed and impressed with the progress.
Can you start a campaign for that? (They were everywhere in Denver.)
How interesting, I never even woulda thought about that. It makes sense though, although I wonder if you can reduce the amount of water used by at-home washing with some sort of water-reducing hose nozzle. I bet there is such a thing, just like water-saving showerheads.
I’ll be honest we rarely ever wash our cars and when we do, it’s my hubby running his through a car wash. My driver is a big ol dodge ram and I drive maybe 20 miles a month, it’s pretty dusty but with all the rain we get here it doesn’t look dirty enough for me to hassle with washing it 🙂
Thanks…