Waterless carwash products distributor PearlSA has thrown down the gauntlet to corporate South Africa to persuade the country’s remaining water-based carwashes to make the switch to waterless polymer-based vehicle cleaning.

By joining PearlSA’s “Be A Hero” campaign, companies across the length and breadth of drought-stricken South Africa will be lending their support to PearlSA’s quest to create thousands of waterless mobile carwashes this summer.

“Some dams are already down to single digits in terms of their water percentages. In a dry country like ours, no water should be used to clean a car, ever. Even recycled water could be put to much better use,” says Neels Van Greune, chief operations officer of PearlSA. “Water is water, it’s valuable and doesn’t belong on a car.”

He continues that PearlSA’s products are used the world over by leading car rental firms, government departments, industrial concerns, and others, and now also by small operators seeing the need for mobile carwashes able to travel to a client’s home or work location. “Our technology is space-age,” Van Greune says.

Dirt particles are liquefied and encapsulated by special premium grade polymers and gently “lifted and suspended” away from the vehicle surface. The encapsulated dirt is then trapped by the microscopic fibres of special PearlSA-supplied cloths that are used to complete the vehicle cleaning process.

The company’s waterless formulation contains Nano and Carnauba waxes which seal the vehicle’s base metal while coating the paint surface at the same time for double protection. It also repels water, making the surface super slick, shiny and giving it anti-static protective qualities. This helps to prevent dust being attracted to the surface, keeping the surfaces cleaner and shinier for much longer than traditional washing.

“We love the ‘Be A Hero’ campaign because it helps solve SA’s twin drought and employment challenges,” Van Greune concludes.