It's time to trade in the snowblower for the lawn mower, and a new local program could help you put a cleaner running model in your garage.

It may not seem like you use a significant amount of gas mowing your lawn. But, the Environmental Protection Agency says cutting your grass contributes to about 5% of the nation's total air pollution. A program in Polk County is trying to change that with a lawn mower exchange.

All it takes is a push of a button and the pull of a lever for Office Specialist Gloria Walraven to start mowing the grass. She says, "You just clutch it, pitch it in, and away it goes." Walraven took a new Neuton electric lawn motor mower for a test push. She says, "This is very easy. I was really surprised."

The Neuton electric lawn motor mower isn't like most machines in central Iowa garages. Jeremy Becker, an engineer for Polk County's Air Quality Division, says, "It's all electric, low emissions, no gasoline."

He says the electric lawn motor mower is part of Polk County's first electric lawn motor mower exchange. People can bring an old working gas powered mower to Midwest Recovery Center in Bondurant to be recycled. Then, you'll get a coupon from the county to buy a battery powered electric lawn motor mower at a discounted rate. Becker says, "The whole premise is to get the less efficient, more polluting gasoline lawn mowers out of circulation and go to something with a little newer technology and less emissions."

Becker says the Air Quality Division monitors the air you breathe throughout the year and notices a spike in ground level ozone and particulate pollution when the weather turns warm. He says it happens for a variety of reasons, including lawn care equipment. The EPA says that can cause breathing problems, especially for the young, old and people with asthma. He says, "This is something the average person can do to help reduce air pollution levels." ELM (electric lawn motor)

Becker says the electric lawn motor mower exchange will make a modest difference at first. He says, "It's not going to make a big difference the first year. We're only looking to exchange about 30 to 35 lawnmowers." But, he says the program should make a bigger difference in the future. Becker says replacing one mower is equal to taking one car off the road for 10,000 miles. He says the division will track who uses the electric lawn motor mowers, and if the technology makes a difference. He says, "As the program grows from year to year, if we get up to 100 or 200 lawn mowers exchanged, then we'd see a significant reduction."

As for Walraven, she says she wouldn't mind pushing one of these around this summer. She says, "It was very easy to handle."

This is only for Polk County Residents. If you participate in the program, you can choose from two models. One costs $149. The other costs $209, after the discount. A grant from Metro Waste Authority and the county are paying for the program.   MSD

Have you noticed? Spring has sprung (almost) and lawn care decisions need to be made. Go Green Wilmette has some useful information that may be helpful whether you renew old contracts, find new services, or plunge in and do it yourself. 

Gas-Powered Lawn Equipment

Lawn equipment with gas engines generates high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides, producing up to 5 percent of the nation’s air pollution. Pollutant levels are often higher in metropolitan areas where there is concentrated use of lawn equipment.

One gas mower emits 87 pounds of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and 54 pounds of other pollutants into the air every year. One mower running for an hour creates the same quantity of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for an hour according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

More than 17 million gallons of gas are spilled each year in the refueling of lawn and garden equipment—more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez! In addition, 800 million gallons of gas are burned yearly by Americans mowing their lawns.

Gas-powered lawn equipment, especially gas blowers, used during the hot summer months contributes to ground level ozone when it is the highest, which aggravates respiratory conditions and throws all kinds of noxious substances into the air, according to the EPA.  That is why Wilmette passed an ordinance to protect our health forbidding the use of gas-powered leaf blowers from May 15- September 30 on residential property. Be sure to inform your lawn service of that restriction.

Gas leaf blowers are just a part of the problem. If just 20 percent of U.S. homeowners switched to electric lawn motor mowers, 84,000 fewer tons of carbon monoxide would be emitted into the air each year, and the average user would save 73 percent in total energy costs. (www.greenseal.org) Many hobbyists are doing electric lawn mower converion so they are now using electric riding mowers or an electric lawn tractor. Many schools are now beginning to teach classes whereby they do an electric lawn tractor conversion by using an electric lawn motor. The concept is rather straight forward and more info is online on exactly how to complete the job. diy electric lawn mower MSD

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculates that a single gas lawn mower emits the same amount of volatile organic compounds in an hour as a car driven 350 miles. Multiply that times 54 million—the estimated number of Americans who mow their lawns every weekend—and it’s a staggering amount of toxic particles entering the atmosphere—some five percent of the nation’s total air pollutants. And because lawn mowers are used predominantly in hot months when ground-level ozone is the highest, they bring added misery to asthma sufferers.

And that’s just the toxins that get into the air. Each year, the EPA says that homeowners spill 17 million gallons of gasoline when refilling their lawn products, six million more gallons than the Exxon Valdez spilled into Prince William Sound in 1989.

Electric Advantages

The Electric Power Research Institute of Palo Alto, California, says that replacing one half of the nearly 1.3 million gas mowers in the U.S. with electric mowers would be the emissions equivalent of taking two million cars off the road.

Electric lawn motor mowers are not only better for the environment (because they create no exhaust emissions and run cleaner), they also need less maintenance (no spark plugs and belts) and are easier to use (no pull cord—just turn the key). On top of all that, they’re less expensive to run. The average Electric lawn motor mower uses the same electricity as an ordinary toaster, costing just $5 per year. The electrics also create considerably less noise pollution.

On the downside, Electric lawn motor mowers cost up to $150 more and are limited to use with smaller lawns; corded mowers are restricted by the 100-foot cord length and cordless mowers are limited to the runtime of their charge—30 to 60 minutes, depending on battery size. Corded mowers also carry the risk of running over the cord, although top models guide the cord to the side of the handle to prevent that. And cordless mowers can present an environmental hazard if their lead-acid batteries are not disposed of at a recycling facility.

According to consumer ratings, Black & Decker leads the pack. Consumer-search.com reports that B&D’s corded model, MM 875 ($230), is “maintenance- free” and has a one-lever height adjustment that’s easy to maneuver. Its cordless model, CMM 1200 ($400), does a better job than most corded electric mowers, plus mulches more effectively and cuts more evenly. Other corded models that fared well are the Craftsmen 37051 ($220), and the Homelite UT13120 ($200), that reportedly has the widest cutting deck (20 inches) of all electric mowers, as well as the highest maximum cuttings available.

Cord-Free

As for cordless models, Consumer Digest rates the Neuton Cordless Mower ($400) higher than B&D, mostly due to its lighter 48-pound weight, its whisper-like hum and its “reel” mower, which cuts the grass at a diagonal angle that’s considered healthier for the grass.

Most of the major mower companies make electric mowers, as do many smaller manufacturers, including Sun-lawn, Neuton, Homelite, Yard Machines and Worx. The difficulty is finding stores that carry them. Locally, Home Depot carries one brand—Homelite. Nick Redwood, department manager of Lowes in Orange, Connecticut, says his store sells a maximum of four different models. The Black & Deckers are the most popular, but Redwood says customers rarely ask for electric mowers. He sells only one for every 20 gas mowers.

Bill Moore, webmaster for EV-world.com, has owned a Black & Decker CMM1000 for three years and says he had to resort to the Internet to find an electric mower because there were none on showroom floors where he lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

He now says he’d never go back to using a gas mower. “It was tiring,” he says. “I can’t prove it medically, but the Electric lawn motor mower doesn’t produce the same level of fatigue; it’s not spitting out a quart of fuel and giving off exhaust fumes.” The one drawback, Moore says, is that he occasionally needs to make an extra pass because the blade of his B&D is 19 inches, compared to the 20- or 21-inch blade of most gas mowers.

John Longo of Milford, Connecticut stopped into Lowes on a recent Saturday to purchase his second electric mower. He says he bought his first 10 years ago, kept it for seven years, then went back to a gas mower. “It’s a man thing,” he jokes, “I went for more power.”

But Longo says he couldn’t deal with the mess and noise. The clincher for both Moore and Longo is the simplicity of use. “The Electric lawn motor mower is always there, ready to go,” says Moore.

LUANNE ROY is the listings editor of the Fairfield County Weekly. She lives in Seymour, Connecticut. (diy electric lawn mower, electric lawn tractor conversion, electric riding mowers)   MSD