An employee with the Shanghai Volkswagen Taxi Company cleans cars with water from a recycling equipment lacquered in green, and placed nearby, last Friday, on August 24, 2007. [Photo: xmnext.com]

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.

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.