When you are running a busy car wash with a team, it is easy to understand why items such as waste management costs oftentimes just “slip through the cracks”. Yet, in our economic lean times, any and all cost savings goes a long way in keeping a company, thriving and successful.

There are in fact, ample ways to improve your car wash waste management costs by looking in the right places and applying techniques to the processes already in place. We want to cover the available options starting with the easiest to implement and then progressing to the more involved ones.

Start With Your Detergents And Its Related Procedures

The most common types of car wash waste or contaminants that require your attention and management are solvents, detergents, chemicals, oils and grime.

• What your car wash uses in its cleaning processes – the solvents, detergents and chemicals – are well within your sphere of control. To begin with, why not opt for biodegradable detergents that are non-corrosive and that require less treatment. Before ordering products, ensure you know what is involved in treating the waste it creates, if any, by reading their Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS).
• When it comes to measuring up the dilutions for application, ensure you do not just eyeball the proportions, as many often do. Many say that it saves them time on the job but chances are more is being poured out than required. At the end of the day, the over pouring translates into excess usage and thus higher material costs, as well as, higher waste management costs.

Instead, to improve the procedure:

• Standardize on optimal dilutions;
• Set down clear guidelines on their application;
• Train your employees and hold them accountable to your company’s waste management practices;
• Have these guidelines posted in your service and customer areas, and just as important,
• You must lead by example.

Staying with the detergents, you must avail the right tools with which to measure and mix the solutions. Additionally, review where and how you store and prepare the solutions. Ideally, it should be in a designated area that has proper drainage in the event of spillage or run-off that may occur, and, away from any water drainage system.

The Right Equipment For Lowering Waste Management Costs

What detailers most commonly use as equipment are hoses and high pressure cleaners. But the force and volume of their spray translates into excessive use of water and disposal of the oils and dirt waste far and wide. Consequently, the larger the dirty area then involves a higher cost in its clean up.

Contrast that with using a steam cleaning system, whereby you clean the vehicles – section by section – with the help of the steam and then wiping off the dislodged grease and dirt with micro fiber towels. You can dispose the bits that you pick up with the towels into buckets or containers for appropriate reducing, recycling or disposal.

Nowadays, there are ample, progressive solutions to improve your waste management costs at every step of the car wash cleaning and detailing processes. You have a wide selection to choose from such as biodegradable, water-based cleaners; waterless solutions and steam cleaning systems that use minimal water and result in wastes that is containable. They result in minimal to no run-off; are safer to store, prepare and use and best of all, they require little to no treatment as any waste that is produced is disposed off at source.

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