Switch to Electric Lawn Equipment

Summary: Replace gas powered lawn equipment with electric powered equipment

Description

Tired of your noisy and smelly lawnmower or string trimmer? Try replacing your gas powered lawn equipment with electric powered, battery operated machinery. 

An estimated 121 million pieces of gas powered lawn equipment are used each year in the United States, representing a significant source of local pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The small gas powered engines in lawn equipment are exceptionally dirty -- they rely upon obsolete technology and are less regulated than cars. 

Many of the lighter products like push mowers, tillers, and leaf blowers use the two stroke engine which is especially harmful because they do not burn all the fuel within the engine itself -- instead, they throw out a lot of the unburned lubricating oil which is very inefficient and polluting.

Do yourself and your neighborhood a favor and use electric equipment and hand tools rather than the loud gas guzzlers! 

Deep Dive

Read an article in the Atlantic about how a writer and activist worked to get leaf blowers banned in Washington, DC.  

Check out a study from scientists in the Boston area estimating emissions from lawn and garden equipment. 

Steps to Take

1. When you replace your lawn equipment, purchase electric powered, battery operated equipment. It will reduce your greenhouse gas emissions as well as noise pollution.

2. You might prioritize replacing the equipment you use the most and/or the ones with two stroke engines since they’re the worst polluters. 

• Note: Does your equipment use the two stroke or the four stroke engine? If you mix the gas and oil before adding it to your machine, it’s a two stroke, and if you add the gas and oil separately to different tanks, it’s probably a four stroke engine, which is only somewhat less polluting. Two stroke engines, such as many leaf blowers, also tend to be louder and are major culprits of noise pollution.

3. If you hire a lawn care company, find one that uses electric powered equipment. 

4. Use hand powered tools when feasible -- for example, rake your leaves rather than blowing them. (Or leave some of them in place to add nutrients back into your lawn.)