1. Most car owners are not aware how harmful home car washing can be for the

environment – and how commercial car washes are regulated to ensure the waste water is treated and cleaned before it reaches our waterways

2. Car wash waste water run-off contains chemicals and toxic road grime.

3. When a car is washed at home, the waste water runs into the stormwater drain designed to collect excess rain, storm and ground water. There are no filters and no treatment.

4. The major stormwater trunk drain transports untreated water into nearby streams, rivers and coastline seas.

5. The polluted waste water from home car washing contaminates the water and bacteria numbers increase very rapidly as the organic chemical food supply increases. This leads to the fish, plant and animal life being deprived of oxygen and suffocating.

In creeks and lakes, the waters become dark and sluggish often with slime forming on the surface. At the coast, the murky outflow clouds the water preventing essential light reaching the plants and fish – particularly on reefs and corals; the sludge sinks to the bottom near the shoreline, discouraging marine activity.

1. Car wash waste water run-off contains chemicals and toxic road grime, as well

as mud and oil.

2. At the car wash, the waste water is collected in underground tanks which are periodically pumped out and the polluted sludge disposed of under strict environmental regulations.

3. The remaining dirty water can be taken into a water recycling system which cleans and filters the water to be re-used again in the car wash.

4. Any water not recycled goes through an oil-separator tank on-site to remove oils and suspended solids. It is then directed through the mains sewer system to a sewage treatment plant.

5. The sewage treatment plant uses micro-organisms (bacteria) to break down and consume the harmful contaminants from the water, producing cleaned, treated water which is safe to go back into the waterways. Any solid waste is carefully disposed of or re-used – for instance as farm fertilizer.