Lawn Madness

Lawn Madness…

I am a newbie on the P’lovers Port Perry team, and I didn’t think I would be an avid blogger, and yet, here I am pounding away on the keyboard! Thanks for taking the time to read the P’lovers Port Perry blog!

I was thrilled today to see a man mowing his lawn with a manual push reel lawn mower! We finally have legislation that prevents people from the needless and heavily polluting use of cosmetic pesticides. The next step is to educate people about the air pollution they emit when cutting their grass with a traditional two-stroke gasoline powered lawn mower!

What you should know:

- A two-stroke gasoline lawnmower burns gasoline and oil, and does so in a highly inefficient manner
- Running your two-stroke lawnmower for just 1 hour releases smog causing emissions equivalent to those released by driving your car for 600 kilometers!!
- Put another way: Running your two-stroke lawn mower for 1 hour releases the same amount of smog causing emissions as running 40 new automobiles for one hour!
- Another potential problem created by using a gas powered lawn mower, is the frequency of gas and oil spillage that happens when trying to fill a standard gas mower without a funnel
- Gas powered weed trimmers, lawn edgers, and leaf blowers have an environmental impact similar to a two-stroke gas powered lawnmower

What you can do to reduce your carbon footprint; not have a forest for a lawn; and not use kitchen scissors to cut your lawn:

- Try an electric lawnmower / trimmer / lawn edger (“I don’t like navigating the cord” is no longer an excuse – there are recharable options available that are cordless)
· Yes, I know, much of the electricity used could be generated in a pollution causing, fossil fuel based power plant, however, the David Suzuki Foundation points out that these plants are much more efficient than running thousands of fuel and oil burning lawnmowers!
· The average electric lanwmower only costs the user $5.00 per year in electricity!

- Try a solar powered lawn mower! These are emission free, and the fuel is free!
However, these mowers can be expensive…

- For another emission free, and a more cost effective alternative to a two-stroke lawnmower, try a manual, push-reel lawnmower!
· No, the new push-reel lawnmowers are NOT the same as the one your grandparents had! The new push-reel mowers can weigh as little as 16 lbs, and run more smoothly than the old push-reel mowers.
· A big bonus with a push-reel lawnmower is that it cuts the grass in smaller pieces which makes it excellent fertilizer! Just leave the clippings on the lawn, and they will compost, putting nitrogen back into the ground without water polluting chemical fertilizers!
· Also, push-reel lawnmowers are silent, and great exercise!

- If you absolutely cannot give up on gas powered lawn mowers, consider purchasing a newer, 4-stroke engine gas mower. While this is not the most ideal choice, 4-stroke mowers still emit less pollution than 2-stroke mowers.

- The last option is switching from grass, to a low maintnence, native local ground
cover such as clover, or other herbal options!

Information sourced from:

The Clean Air Foundation, “Mow Down Pollution: Facts and Info,” http://www.cleanairfoundation.org/mowdownpollution/facts.mdp.asp

The David Suzuki Foundation, “Garden Tools Shouldn’t Pollute,” May 9, 2003, http://www.davidsuzuki.org/about_us/Dr_David_Suzuki/Article_Archives/weekly05090301.asp