PSA: Carpet Cleaning

Nothing feels better than walking across clean carpet, except maybe wading through clean water on a warm summer day. Unfortunately, far too often dirty wash water from carpet cleaning is dumped down the driveway and finds its way through the storm drain system to our local waters. Stormwater drains do not go and get treated. They typically go straight into our waterbodies. Disposing of these materials into storm drains causes serious ecological problems and is PROHIBITED by law. There are some easy steps you can take to help keep our waters clean!

Dirty water after cleaning should not go outside in the street or driveway, instead it should head to you sink, toilet, or other drain in your home that is connected to the sanitary sewer. These types of drains go to the water treatment plants and they remove all the cleaners, grime, and more from that water before it is replenished into the waterways.

NEVER dump or discharge wastewater into a street, gutter, parking lot, ditch, or storm drain. This applies even to those products labeled as “nontoxic” or “biodegradable.” Many products that are “green” still impact our environment. For example, biodegradable simply means that the product or soap will degrade with time, not that it can have negative impacts on our waters.

Remove the large debris from the dirty water before dumping down the appropriate drain. The debris could clog your pipes. Simply, dispose of the unwanted material in the garbage, provided that the carpet was not contaminated with hazardous waste.