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Give a Hoot - Don't Pollute
Use a Push Mower
 A dirty secret of lawn care is how much gasoline powered lawn mowers pollute (see Frugal Thoughts About Lawn Mowers).
The pollution comes in two forms - noise and fumes. We all know about the noise - you hear it every time you step outside into your yard on a summer day - but the amount of polluting that motorized lawn mowers produce is astounding (see Calculating Lawn Mower Emissions).
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, gasoline-powered landscape equipment (mowers, trimmers, blowers, chain saws) account for more than 5 percent of our urban air pollution. The EPA also says a new motorized push mower can produce as many hydrocarbons - a major pollutant - in one hour as 11 new cars! A new riding mower's polluting can equal an hour's worth of pollution from 34 new cars.
Although some lawn mower manufacturers have fought pollution controls for years (see A Greener Way to Cut the Grass Runs Afoul of a Powerful Lobby), the EPA was on the verge of setting new emission standards for lawn mowers as well as other motorized lawn care equipment during the summer of 2006. If the EPA goes ahead with new standards, most likely manufacturers will have to add plastic gas tanks and impermeable lines to reduce gas evaporation as well as adding catalytic converters to cut emissions.
The easiest way to not pollute, of course, is to simply ditch the combustible engine and buy a push reel mower.
Click here for comparisons between manual, rechargeable, electric and gas mowers.
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