Private transport is getting more eco-friendly, with zero-emission vehicles a common sight on our roads nowadays, but to be even kinder to the planet, it’s important to know environmentally friendly ways to keep a car clean.
Luckily there are many different eco friendly methods for cleaning your car, from commercial products with an environmental aspect, to some surprising home remedies for scuffed upholstery or paintwork.
Water efficiency
If you choose to stick to commercial cleaning products, look for polishes that can be wiped off, rather than washed off – you’ll use much less water, and it’s easier and less messy too.
Keep cool
Save even more water by washing your car on a cloudy day. While we all tend to choose sunny days to give the car a clean, hot bodywork can cause water to evaporate too quickly, leaving streaks and splotches, and wasting more of this valuable resource.
Enjoy the shine
Chrome can be given a fresh shine by polishing it with bunched-up kitchen foil and either cola or baby oil – just be careful if using any kind of oil that it cannot be washed away into a pond, stream, or anywhere else where it might harm animals.
Vinegar
Clear spirit vinegar is one of the world’s true wonder fluids, with thousands of applications. Add it to home-made cleaning fluids for extra shine, or use it in solution to tackle upholstery stains, among the many other eco-friendly methods for cleaning your car with vinegar.
Clean your wipers
You probably wash your windscreen several times during a long journey – but how often do you clean your wiper blades? By keeping them free from accumulated dirt, you can avoid streaks across your windscreen, so that you use less water and screenwash chemicals to clear the glass again.
Have a banana
There are several surprising ways to clean a car with banana peel, including using the inner surface as a wet wipe on leather upholstery, and leaving a banana skin in your car for a few days to soak up any unwelcome odours.
Dust it off
A lot of settled dust doesn’t need any cleaning fluids at all – just a soft brush, like a paintbrush for details, or a clothes brush for larger areas – and a vacuum on hand to catch dislodged dust so it can’t just fly away and land elsewhere in the interior.
Wash once
Be logical and avoid having to re-wash parts of your car – start at the top so any run-off only lands on parts you haven’t yet cleaned, and roll windows down to clean the top edge first too, as grime can hide up there when they are closed.
Get boozy
A little alcohol can help home-made cleaning solutions give a gleaming streak-free shine and lift off even more dirt – as always, avoid allowing large quantities of alcohol to get washed into nearby land or watercourses.
All in the buff
Whatever method you use to clean your car, use a microfibre cloth to buff it afterwards, removing excess moisture and preserving the shine for longer, as well as preventing run-off of cleaning chemicals into the nearby environment.