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The Green Lawn Mower - Is It Worth It?
Why then is there a need to consider purchasing a mower that is more environmentally friendly? Running the mower engine for an hour produces a startling array of toxins. Claims about the quantity of pollution produced by a fossil fuel powered mower vary wildly. The EPA in the US has made the seemingly outrageous claim that the standard mower produces as much pollution as 40 late model cars run for the same period of time which if true makes the mower emissions of an hour's operation the equivalent to a 40 hour car trip. This is the very lowest end of the pollution claims for mowers.This is not due to the quantity of fuel consumed but rather the products of the combustion in the mower engine and their reaction in the air once released. Not all emission gases are equal in their contribution to the Greenhouse Effect. Mowers and other unregistered motorized equipment has not been required to meet emissions standards until recently in the US and still go unchecked in many countries. Garden mowers have a reasonably long lifespan and it can be assumed that the vast majority of lawn mowers in service today were not built with any emissions considerations whatsoever and that very few of these mowers will ever be serviced or maintained in any manner. It is also worth noting that virtually all petrol driven mowers have two stroke engines, and 2 stroke exhaust gases are far more polluting than those from 4 stroke engines.
In order to ensure that combustion of the fuel in the engine is as complete as possible, the engine needs to be built to fairly strict specifications. This also then requires quality control testing of the engines in regards to their emissions both initially and in the longer term. These factors combine to make emissions controlled mower engines far more expensive than ones that do not need to meet any pollution standards. However, the money saved in production of cheaper engines results in many pollutants that could otherwise be avoided.The list is impressive and includes organic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as well as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ozone. This is in addition to the emission of Carbon Dioxide from the fuel that does burn properly. Some of these products are the result of incomplete combustion of fuel, and some are the result of the reaction of the exhaust gases with the outside air. All of these chemicals are significant Greenhouse gases and some are toxic to people as well. The ozone emitted can cause respiratory problems. Both it and the nitrogen oxides are main constituents of photochemical smog. CNN has reported that over 35 million liters of lawn mower fuel is spilled each year as owners refuel the machines, causing further air and ground pollution. Electric green lawn mowers overcome these problems. Assuming you are buying your electricity from an accredited Green Energy provider, the green lawn mower can be operated for indefinite periods without emissions. It is also possible to use a hand propelled mower. While these have a high exercise value while mowing, they are quite ineffective in long grass. The cut grass tends to become wrapped around the axle of the mower which provides increasing resistance until the mower is no longer usable and the grass needs to be cut off the axle with a knife. Person experience indicates that this needs to be done every five minutes on average. A good environmental solution is a combination of a hand mower for short grass and an electric green lawn mower for the overgrown areas. |
