New washing stations save loads of water

Washing trucks and trailers takes a bucket of water or two. That’s why over the past few years we have been focusing on how we can save water when washing our vehicles.
Working together with external companies, we have developed a washing station for our trucks where we decontaminate and re-use the grey water from cleaning.
– We use biological cleaning, which means that we add additional oxygen to the water, which helps cultivate bacteria that “eat” the oil residues in the grey water, says Jakob Gundal Nikolajsen, building manager for Frode Laursen.
In addition to purifying the grey water, we also add rain water from the roof of the building.
– A little water will always be lost in washing – some will be left on the truck, and some will also evaporate. By supplementing with rainwater, we are able to completely avoid using fresh drinking water to wash the vehicles, says Jakob, who also reports on how we are working to develop a sand separator that can remove sand from the used grey water. Today, the process takes place in a tank where the sand settles. We are working to remove the sand without having to set up a tank, which will reduce environmental impact still further.
Today, we have environmentally friendly wash stations in Tietgenbyen, Stenkullen and Vitten. In the spring, we will be opening the next environmentally friendly washing station at our location in Åstorp.

With just the 3 washing stations that we have open now, we are saving approximately 9,000 m3 of fresh drinking water, or the equivalent of the annual consumption of 64 families – every year!