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 Letters - July 2008  |
Reader Response GREEN SNAKE OIL
It was a nice article Robert Roman had in the May issue of Auto Laundry News [page 78]. I couldn’t agree with him more, and have long been aghast at the “snake oil” approaches to being green, even before being green was a buzz phrase. The actions that truly help toward being green are simple to understand, with fairly obvious direct benefit, such as those he cited in the last paragraph, all of which directly conserve energy or resources. My company manufactures car wash water-reclaim systems, as well as water reclamation in other areas. Because many car washes tried reclaim many years ago when many systems were marginal, wash-water reclamation got a bad name (deservedly) that lives to this day. It’s a shame; such systems today can be very good, efficient, and relatively trouble free. Still, one cannot blame an operator for refusing to use reclaim if he knows someone who once tried it and gave it up. There are still many things that an operator can do to reduce his carbon footprint. Again, nice article. I hope it gives some car wash operators some good ideas. Keith Brecken WASHING IS GREEN I have been reading Robert Roman’s stuff for a long time. Being Green is a great piece [Auto Laundry News May 2008, page 78]; I would like to add this to our “green” arsenal. Keeping your car clean is regular maintenance and regular maintenance prolongs the life of your car. Driving a vehicle for an extra year or two theoretically slows the resource hungry production of a new one. Economics aside, I think anything that will help us to prolong the life of our vehicles is certainly green. As I see it, just by doing what we do (wash cars) we are green — using photovoltaic systems, fuel cells, waste oil, and recycling water is icing on the cake. Thanks for reading this. Matt Muffet
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