Here's Why

Car Wash Carpentry

The Crystal Car Wash (02 9412 1699) two metres away from my window woke me at 5am, and now at 10:15pm they are still running their bandsaw and drills. I don't know what woodwork has to do with washing cars, but they're very keen on it. They're using some nasty smelling stuff on the wood that makes me dizzy. Hopefully they'll finished before midnight, and won't restart tomorrow with more noise. I know better than to hope they stop playing "Its A Hard Knock Life" over and over on their sound system.

I'd really like to know why councils all over Sydney have allowed them to build these loud industrial sites that run more than 12 hours a day, 7 days per week, between houses and flats. I've seen others and they're also in residential zones. There seems to be no limits on what they do, or when they do it. They never rest, I guess they're not unionised.

They must use megalitres of water every week - all day, every day.

Chatswood, Lane Cove, Mosman, Bondi, Kingsford, and more; the commercial car washes are doing very well out of selling car owners the right to bypass the water restriction laws. Residents aren't allowed to waste water on their cars, but businesses have a license to sell the right to waste water on cars, while disrupting residential areas more than dirty cars ever would. Water restrictions mean nothing if they encourage a trade of water wasting rights. Can't do what you like with water? Buy the right from a business! Does the business make more water? No. Any other laws that the government wants to sell the right to violate? And more water is wasted, because its now a revenue generator.

In a drought-ridden State, what self-respecting patriot has a clean car? Commercial Car Washes are water pollution factories that dump phosphates in the river system as they empty our drinking water supply, just so you can feel your car looks pretty.

Show you are community minded and let your car stay dirty. It doesn't harm the car. Wash it yourself, over a lawn, in the evening, when its legal. A pretty car means you're UnAustralian. Think about the children!

About the author: Ian Woolf lives in Sydney, has a degree in Applied Science, worked as a solar astronomer, software engineer, systems programmer, webmaster, research assistant, Cisco CCNA tutor, Physics laboratory demonstrator, Computational Theory lecturer, and subject coordinator; while changing his career to freelance writing and broadcasting. Listen to Ian on the Diffusion radio science show on radio 2SER 107.3FM Monday at 6:30pm in Sydney or streaming audio on www.2ser.com, or listen to the Diffusion podcasts. You should follow me on twitter, here