Hand Car Wash Businesses – is Green the New Gold?

The rise in popularity of the hand car wash has seen a dramatic increase in water use and a negative effect on the environment. Yet Car Park Valeting have found an eco friendly answer.
There seems to be a thriving business in every disused petrol station and every crumbling building.
Dirty signs and boards on every street corner with faded red letters screaming “HAND CAR WASH £3 NEXT LEFT.”
Driving past you can see half a dozen hardworking guys trying desperately to keep up with the demand for this cut price service. It’s the weekend and a line of cars has formed, all with their engines running, waiting to be cleaned.
Some say it’s entrepreneurial and many take advantage, but what harm is this service really doing to our environment?
In todays society, with councils, politicians and presenters bombarding us with the need to be green in everything we do, maybe it is time to see past the cut-price and beyond the bargain and start thinking of the environment when making the most routine of decisions.
We are recycling more, eating organically and using green alternatives to transport, gas and electric. But can changing the way we wash our cars really help save the planet?
“Roughly speaking, if a hand car wash operation cleans 50 cars a day without the correct drainage solutions, they’ll discharge around 910000 litres of water a year into the overloaded storm drains” says Alan Wildman, Head of Operations for Car Park Valeting, the UK’s largest car valeting franchise.
“The waste water mixed with the grease and grime from the cars, flows down the drains which has a very negative effect on our rivers and streams” he continued. “If you can imagine this is happening all day, everyday, on every busy road in the country, then we have a nationwide problem.”
However, if this is the only employment option open to you, the effect on the environment may be the least of your worries. Many workers in this type of business are immigrants from poorer European countries who have to work long and hard to survive. Unfortunately very few of these car washers fully understand our waste water regulations and the need for the correct drainage solutions for our most precious commodity.
“We know that we can help” says Alan. “We have created a professional and accredited hand car wash service which is designed to be great for the car, our workers and the environment, especially since we have incorporated our new green waterless cleaning system on many sites. We want to offer all the current hand car wash operations our help and expertise, to build a business the correct and eco friendly way.”
By using a trade secret formula, Car Park Valeting technicians simply spray, wipe, clean all the dirty cars, leaving the paintwork unmarked and with a polished and protected finish. As they use a waterless or 1 litre wash system, they leave no run off residue, simply taking the wash away with them. It really has to be seen to be believed.
But surely for the customer, this kind of service is much more expensive than a standard hand car wash?
“Admittedly, we will struggle to clean a car for £3,” said Alan. “Yet our system creates a protective and polished barrier on the car, therefore the paintwork will stay cleaner for longer. This gives the customer extra value for money when using a CPV hand car wash.”
By combining a waterless system into hand car wash and car park operations around the country, Car Park Valeting could really make a difference to the way in which we clean our cars in the 21st century.