Cut your grass and pollution at the same time!

So, this past weekend I volunteered some of my time Saturday morning with Rebuilidng Together. There was a team of us who helped an elderly couple remove their buried treasures that they had been collecting for 30+ years. Basically, there backyard looked like Urban Ore just on a smaller scale.

Anyways, after removing three lawn mowers that were probably made in the 70's it got me thinking why everyone on the block needs a lawn mower? And then I got this article via email regarding lawn mowers from seventh generation. The is called Mow better: how to cut pollution and your grass at the same time.

Here some facts and information that grabbed my attention:

Helpful though it may be, the gasoline-powered lawn mower, America’s tool of choice for keeping its grass well-groomed, is anything but green. In fact, lawnmowers are responsible for a lot more air pollution than their small size might suggest. Take a look at these facts and figures:

• Lawn mowers produce 5% of the nation’s total air pollution burden.

• A single gas-powered push lawn mower creates as much air pollution in an hour as a car driven 100 miles. Riding mowers are even worse offenders.

• Every hour the average 3.5 horsepower mower emits approximately the same amount of volatile organic compounds (a particular type of hazardous air pollutant) as an automobile driven 340 miles.

• During a typical day, Southern California’s lawn mowers, weed-whackers, and other lawn tools produce more air pollution than all the airplanes flying in and out of the Los Angeles region.

• The 20 million small engines purchased each year in the U.S. are responsible for about 10% of the country’s mobile-source hydrocarbon emissions.

• Homeowners use 800 million gallons of gasoline per year in their mowers.

• Outdoor equipment users spill 17 million gallons of fuel each year during refilling. That’s more fuel than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.

• Lawnmowers create noise pollution, too. The typical model produces 90 decibels of engine noise, a level above the threshold at which experts recommend ear protection.

* If you would like to read more go to:

http://seventhgeneration.com/making_difference/newsletter_article.php?article=555&issue=97