First recycled water car wash opens at the Heliport car park

The Prince’s Government has decided to progressively renovate car washes located in the Principality’s public car parks to equip them with a water recycling system as part of its water resource management policy.

The first such car wash just opened to the public at the Heliport car park. The recycled water used to wash vehicles at the site operates using a nearly 100% closed-loop system that enables the water to be re-used infinitely.

The system offers a number of advantages:

• It significantly reduces the unnecessary use of drinking water, unlike conventional car washes, which draw from the network of drinking water that supplies our homes. Every year thousands of cubic metres of drinking water are used once and discharged into the waste water network
• It is "organic" in that no additives such as enzymes are required. Water used to wash vehicles is stored in overhead tanks to be decanted before transfer to a biological reactor and a process of fine filtration and disinfection before being reused
• The system allows the car wash to be used year-round, even in “warning level” periods of drought in the Principality of Monaco  (Article 4, Ministerial Decree No. 2023-255 of 4 May 2023)

In the near future, car washes at the Wurtemberg, La Colle and Salines car parks will also be equipped with this recycled washing water system.