Cleaner Air : Gas Mower Pollution Facts

Each weekend, about 54 million Americans mow their lawns, using 800 million gallons of gas per year and producing tons of air pollutants. Garden equipment engines, which have had unregulated emissions until very recently, emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, producing up to 5% of the nation's air pollution and a good deal more in metropolitan areas.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a traditional gas powered lawn mower produces as much air pollution as 43 new cars each being driven 12,000 miles.

Gardners Spill More than the Exxon Valdez

And speaking of gas, the EPA states that 17 million gallons of fuel, mostly gasoline, are spilled each year while refueling lawn equipment. That's more than all the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez, in the Gulf of Alaska. In addition to groundwater contamination, spilled fuel that evaporates into the air and volatile organic compounds spit out by small engines make smog-forming ozone when cooked by heat and sunlight.

Calculate Your Gas Mower's Emissions

Until 1995, lawnmower emissions were unregulated. Older more powerful, less efficient two-cycle engines release 25-30% of their oil and gas unburned into the air. Gas mowers emit hydrocarbons (a principle ingredient of smog), particulate matter (damaging to the respiratory system), carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas) and carbon dioxide (contributing to global warming). The health toll includes cancer as well as damage to lungs, heart, and both the immune and detoxification systems. Plus smog inhibits plant growth. EPA regulations are beginning to reduce mower emissions.

Electric mowers don't totally eliminate pollution, however emissions from the electric industry are more regulated and are not in your backyard. Also they save on gas spills and gas refinery and transportation. To achieve a net environmental savings from switching from gas to electric mowers depends on the efficiency of the power plant from where the electricity originates. Only reel mowers have a 0 carbon footprint. This is why we still prefer reel mowers to all other types of mowers, and electric reel mowers which can have an electric kick for those days when the lawn is longer or your time is shorter.

CTA site to calculate your lawnmower's pollution :
http://www.etc-cte.ec.gc.ca/databases/lawnmoweremissions/default.aspx
 

Ozone Alert Days

Since this equipment is used mostly during the hot summer months, when ground level ozone is the highest, it causes problems for asthmatics and aggravates other respiratory conditions. When weather forecasts indicate ground-level ozone (the main component of smog) could reach an unhealthy level, environmental agencies will call an Ozone Action Day. Standard ozone alert day advice is to delay or curtail all gas mowing.

Using a push mower instead of a power mower helps to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere by 80lbs a year

From the easy to the ambitious, there are numerous actions you can take to reduce your energy consumption and fight global warming. By taking any of the following actions, you are helping to clean up our atmosphere.

EPA statistics for Replacing Gas Power Lawn Mowers

Well over 5 million gas powered mowers are still sold in the U.S. every year. A typical 3.5 horsepower gas mower, for instance, can emit the same amount of VOCs -- key precursors to smog -- in an hour as a new car driven 340 miles, say industry experts.

FACT: Americans burn 800 million gallons of gas each year trimming their grassy yards, according to the EPA FACT: One gas mower running for an hour emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists

The replacement of every 500 gas mowers with non-motorized mowers would spare the air

• 212 pounds of hydrocarbons
  (smog ingredient)
• 1.7 pounds of nitrogen oxides
  (smog ingredient)
• 5.6 pounds of irritating particles 1,724 pounds of carbon dioxide