A university study carried out in the USA actually shows that washing by hand at home can be one of the worst ways to wash your car. It concluded that a single wash at home can leave scratches of up to 10% of the total thickness of a vehicles paint. This same situation can exist in commercial hand car washes, where the same sponge or rag is used from one vehicle to the next and moves from wheels containing harsh brake dust and compounds directly onto your car’s clear coat. Another very important fact is that every time a vehicle is washed at home, in the driveway or street, all of the water containing uncontrolled detergents, dirt, oil and brake dust run into the stormwater drain, ending up in our rivers, streams, bays and waterways, polluting our swimming areas and having devastating effects on aquatic life and the environment. At Tunnel Wash, all of our runoff is collected and goes into tanks where the solids are collected and disposed of in accordance with strict ECAN and CCC requirements and the wash water is recycled, with any excess sent to and processed through the sewerage system.