Most driveway cleaners are powerful solvents that dilute the oil, even dissolve the asphalt, and create more pollution. Research in British Colombia has shown that more oil gets into the ocean from streets, driveways and parking lots than from oil tanker spills.
So in an effort to clean the oceans and with some help from professors from the University of B.C., Kevin Daum came up with a product that soaks into just about anything, including concrete, paving stone and asphalt, foams the spilled oil up to the surface (without bothering the oil components in asphalt) which allows you to sponge it all up rather than flush it down the drain.
Contact between the Oil Lift and the oil begins a process of breaking down the carbon chains in the oil which makes the whole mess bio-degradable. You can actually throw the slurry on your lawn and the enzymes in the soil will finish the process, and feed your grass at the same time. Now that's an interesting cleaner -- the only driveway cleaner I know about that carries a Canadian EcoLogo. And it really does clean the driveway. It doesn't just clean up pollution, it stops the pollution.
Of course Kelvin uses it to clean everything including the laundry, but then inventors are always like that with their products -- but when I follow his suggestions, he is always right -- it works amazingly. I cleaned an uncleanable beige stairway carpet back to new -- refreshed my driveway asphalt -- and on and on.
Since I first wrote this article, he has developed a powder to use on fresh oil, or following oil lift on old stains, called Flubber Dust. These products draw oil out of concrete, paving stones and asphalt – draws it into the Flubber Dust and then bio-degrades to make it totally non-toxic and the Dust can be reused again and again. No more pollution down the storm drain from cleaning the driveway.
Save the Oceans is the name of the company. Truely ecological cleaning is the mission. Top notch chemical technology that not only cleans up, but transforms pollution leaving no toxic waste to deal with.
Both products are available at Canadian Tire and we should all beat up the store managers to get them to make it more prominent over the polluting solvents that they also sell for cleaning driveways. Their web site is www.OilLift.net. They have a large number of application videos on their YouTube Channel. I have been supporting this product for years. I guess someday I should get them to pay me for doing this.