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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
A greener trim can be found
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowers aren’t the only thing sprouting up in my yard.
Over Easter weekend, I spotted a few blades of grass - new growth - and a heap of crab grass. It’s grass-cutting time. Before long, that ominous sound of lawn mowers, weed trimmers and other yard equipment will fill afternoons and Saturday mornings.
So you know what that means. Well, maybe you don’t. It’s time to service that gas-powered lawn mower, to change that spark plug and filter, maybe sharpen the blade. Your mower will cut better and burn less gasoline.
A well-maintained mower serves another purpose, too. It helps air quality, the environment. I didn’t realize how much pollution lawn mowers, weed trimmers, edgers, leaf blowers and other gas-powered yard tools belch out until I began researching this column. Many people are in the same boat with me, I’d imagine.
“You’re right,” said Kevin Green, executive director of The Clean Air Campaign, a nonprofit that works to improve air quality. “People think that if they pull the cord and the engine starts, they are good to go. They don’t realize you are supposed to change spark plugs and filters. A simple 30-minute tuneup can reduce air pollutants by as much as 50 percent.”
The Web site of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has some interesting facts. Did you know:
- A gas-powered push mower gives off as much pollution per hour as 11 cars.
*Last year, the EPA set new emissions standards for gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment that will be phased in by 2011, at the earliest.
- An EPA study found that roughly 9 percent of some air pollutants nationwide come from small engines in lawn and garden equipment.
Green gave me a scenario of what takes place on those weekend mornings when people crank up their gas-powered mowers across metro Atlanta.
“The pollutants from the mower combine with pollutants from auto tailpipes and other causes and form an ozone plume,” he told me. “If there is not a lot of wind, that plume hangs out over the region. If gas-powered mowers and equipment contribute up to almost 9 percent of air pollutants, that’s a pretty significant, considering the machines aren’t operating all the time like cars.”
Green implores us to beat the rush. Get the mower serviced, or do it yourself. It’s four simple steps: Change the filter, oil and spark plug; and add fuel stabilizer.
A few years ago, the National Wildlife Federation and Briggs & Stratton Corp. teamed up to launch a now-defunct campaign that declared March as National Mower Tune-up Month. The small-engine manufacturer used the environmental message to help drive sales of its mower tune-up kits.
Call it capitalism with purpose.
And advice I always heed.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875.
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