which cleaner?

[don63011]

When I rinse my truck the rinse water including suds go into a street drain which has a placard stuck to it saying no dumping-drains to stream. I want to be sure I'm not putting a hamful substance into the environment. Which of your products will I be safe to use? thanks.

[Mike Phillips]

Moving out of the Meguiar's Frequently Asked Questions forum and into the Detailing 101 forum.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: which cleaner?

Originally posted by don63011
When I rinse my truck the rinse water including suds go into a street drain which has a placard stuck to it saying no dumping-drains to stream. I want to be sure I'm not putting a harmful substance into the environment. Which of your products will I be safe to use? thanks.

Hi donb63011,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!


Whenever you wash a car, you remove dirt, road grime, brake dust, exhaust fumes/contaminants, oil, etc. from your car or truck and this is considered pollution, or contaminants.

Using a safe, or a biodegradable soap doesn't magically make these items safe or disappear when they are washed down the drain.

Your problem isn't finding a safe or magic soap, your problem is the place you live has made it illegal for the average person to wash their car in their driveway.

It's likely the best solutions for you is to wash your car at a do-it-yourself car wash, take your car to a car wash and pay someone else to do it, or take your chances.

There are a lot of counties like this in Southern California and this is likely the reason there are a lot of car washes in California where supposedly the water is reclaimed, filtered and re-used.

I am pretty confident you won't find a car wash by another company that will do what you want it to do, that is to somehow take the nasty things on your car the government doesn't like and make them nice.

Best of luck to you...

[Aminga]

Re: Re: which cleaner?

Originally posted by Mike Phillips
Hi donb63011,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!


Whenever you wash a car, you remove dirt, road grime, brake dust, exhaust fumes/contaminants, oil, etc. from your car or truck and this is considered pollution, or contaminants.

Using a safe, or a biodegradable soap doesn't magically make these items safe or disappear when they are washed down the drain.

Your problem isn't finding a safe or magic soap, your problem is the place you live has made it illegal for the average person to wash their car in their driveway.

It's likely the best solutions for you is to wash your car at a do-it-yourself car wash, take your car to a car wash and pay someone else to do it, or take your chances.

There are a lot of counties like this in Southern California and this is likely the reason there are a lot of car washes in California where supposedly the water is reclaimed, filtered and re-used.

I am pretty confident you won't find a car wash by another company that will do what you want it to do, that is to somehow take the nasty things on your car the government doesn't like and make them nice.

Best of luck to you...

Thank God I live in Alabama.

Is the water in these places filtered or treated. It seems to me that it would eventually build up other folks various and sundry car cleaning chemicals and be not so good for the paint after a while.

[FromThisSoil]

These rules and regulations never cease to amaze me.

More pollutants are washed off the street by rain than washing every car in town.

Where do they think this stuff goes? The oil and grease, etc only stick to cars? Most of it is on the roadways. Next time it rains, they should take a look at the colors of the rainbow floating on the road and into the catch basins (drainage).

[don63011]

which cleaner ?

Thanks everyone. I called the local sewer district regarding this topic. They assured me that washing my truck in the driveway was perfectly accecptable.