Three Shanghai Volkswagen Taxi Companies have recently adopted
water recycling equipments to wash their cars, saving about 60
percent of the water they formerly used for a single wash.
Local Xinmin Evening News reports that Shanghai
Volkswagen Taxi Companies are the first Chinese taxi businesses to
employ the water recycling equipment.
An employee with the
Shanghai Volkswagen Taxi Company cleans cars with water from a
recycling equipment lacquered in green, and placed nearby,?on
August 24.
It is estimated that with the introduction of water recycling
measures, at least 50 thousand tons of water can be saved from the
wash on 9,600 Volkswagen taxis on a monthly basis, suppose each
taxi undergoes 15 washes a month.
The equipments draw dirty water from a waste-water storage
basin, and give it a special treatment before making it rewashable
clean water, thus reducing pollution from the direct discharge of
wastewater into the sewage system.
Around 365 thousand tons of water is consumed in washing taxis
in a year in this eastern Chinese municipality.
To date, few auto wash centers in the country have employed such
water-recycling equipment. For instance, one auto wash company -
which had pioneered the use of such equipment in Nanjing in east
China - sold off the equipment last year. The company explains that
customers prefer clean pipe water to recycled water in their car
wash, and that they lost many customers while using recycled
water.
On the other hand, a higher investment in water recycling
equipment obstruct auto wash centers' plan to join the
environmentally-friendly movement.
(CRI August 29, 2007)
