|
| Local car repair shop using environment-friendly paints |   |
| Author:
Vancouver Sun | Date:
10/20/2006 | Bernhard Ruppert wants car repair customers to help to save the environment when their vehicle needs a paint job.
The recent arrival from Germany is believed to be the first body shop owner in British Columbia to use only waterborne refinishing paints to minimize harmful emissions associated with solvent-based paints.
"No, they wonít wash off the first time it rains," Ruppert laughs in an interview. "They have been thoroughly tested and widely used in Europe for 12 years."
The new owner of Kitsilano's False Creek Collision Plus said waterborne paints are just as effective as traditional coatings and need not cost more. Painters like them because they donít smell and are less hazardous than solvent-based paints.
A few other body shops offer waterborne systems in conjunction with conventional systems but the technology has yet to become mainstream in North America because it is not widely known and clean air regulations, outside of California, are less strict.
That will change if Ottawa follows through with promised legislation to cut back on emissions of volatile organic compounds believed to contribute to global warming and ozone depletion.
© Vancouver Sun 2006 |
|
| |
|