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Here's something new you'll be seeing around town soon enough: "eco-friendly" car-washing carts. After what must have been years of research, environmentalists have determined that the car washes you're used to—the one where you drive through a battery of mops, bristles, and sudsy foam while you (or your children) scream in delight—consumes a ton of a water. Which is bad. Because then there's less of it to waste watering gigantic lawns or filling up Olympic-size swimming pools that no one swims in!

Coming soon is GeoWash, a little cart that an attendant uses to hand-wash your Prius (or the gas-guzzling Hummer you keep hidden away in your garage) with a minimum of water. Like most environmentally-friendly items, it's both more expensive and more inconvenient than the old way of doing things: It will cost nearly twice as a regular car wash, and it takes almost twice as long as an automated wash. The only big advantage? These things may be installed at garages around town. So instead of practically driving on to the Intrepid to have your car washed, you'll be able to pull into a garage in Midtown have it washed. The $20 wash will seem like a bargain compared to the $80 you pay per half-hour for parking.

Eco-friendly car wash rolling into Manhattan [Crain's]
GeoWash demonstration [GeoWash demo; in Spanish]