Fall Yard Cleanup – the Green Way

Fall Yard Cleanup – the Green Way

Some of us are sad that summer is coming to a close and some of us are relieved that summer is coming to a close – the summer heat that is. Either way, it’s hard to believe that it’s almost that time again. Yes, I’m talking about Fall Yard Cleanup.

As we put away the kiddie pool, the yard games, and the patio furniture, we think about cleaning up the yard and getting prepared for winter – especially those of us in the northern half of the country.

Can we do Fall Yard Cleanup in a ‘green’ or ‘greener’ way?

Absolutely.

We’ll explore two primary ways to make your Fall Yard Cleanup ‘greener’.

Yard Waste

Our biggest impact, related to Fall Yard Cleanup, is in what we do with our yard ‘waste’. Whether our waste is comprised of leaves, tree trimmings, grass clippings, or dead annual plantings, our yard waste can produce a lot of greenhouse gasses if not properly disposed.

When we put yard waste into the garbage and the garbage truck takes it to a traditional landfill, the decomposing waste emits methane gas – gas that is 28-36 times more potent than CO2 (source: EPA). Unfortunately, yard waste is estimated to make up 20-50% of our US landfills today (source: Only Natural Energy).

The solution is to compost the yard waste instead – either in your back yard or in a community composting facility. Check with your town or city to see if 1) there is a composting facility there you can drop off your yard waste, and 2) whether there is a curbside pickup service that takes your yard waste to the composting facility. And, make sure to bag your yard waste in paper, compostable bags – not plastic bags!

If we were all able to compost our yard waste versus sending it to the garbage/landfill, we’d reduce 20-50% of the methane producing waste in our landfills. This would be a significant reduction in greenhouse gasses!

Gas-powered Machinery

Our machinery that runs on fossil fuels (gasoline) can also produce a fair amount of greenhouse gasses. Whether you do your own Fall Yard Cleanup or you hire a crew, a variety of gas-powered machines are typically used – from mowers to leaf blowers to weed whackers to hedge trimmers to chippers to edgers and more.

At first you may think that these gas-powered machines are insignificant compared to the emissions from our cars, but because of their pure numbers and low regulatory requirements, they actually account for a sizable percentage of our overall greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the California Air Resources Board, these “small, off-road engines,” or SORES, significantly outnumber passenger cars in the vehicle-happy Golden State. An Environmental Protection Agency study calculates that SORES account for 4 percent of CO2 emissions nationwide.

A few more stats from Only Natural Energy:

• According to a Swedish study, using a mower for one hour has the same carbon footprint as a 100-mile car trip.
• The EPA found that gasoline-powered lawn mowers emit eight times more nitrogen oxides, 3,300 times more hydrocarbons, 5,000 times more carbon monoxide and more than twice the CO2 per hour of operation than electric lawn mowers.
• It has been estimated that thirty minutes of a leaf blower’s use produces the same amount of hydrocarbon emissions as driving a car seventy-seven hundred miles at a speed of thirty miles per hour.

So what is the solution?

Depending on the size of your yard, you may not be able to completely remove usage of these gas-powered machines, but you might be able to reduce their usage. Even if we can’t remove them completely, a reduction is still helpful. Simply being conscious of the fact that their emissions are high can lead people to use them more sparingly.

Instead of using a gas-powered mower, you may want to consider Push Reel Mower or an Electric Mower. An article from Sciencing shows that 1 hour per mowing over the course of 1 year (22 mowings) will yield 22 pounds of carbon from a reel mower, 31.68 pounds of carbon from an electric mower, and 194 pounds of carbon from a gas mower.

If you lack the energy to push a reel mower, consider a Bicycle Mower. The Bicycle Mower company in Massachusetts is selling reel mowers that a homeowner can pull behind their bicycle – getting exercise while saving the environment. Who needs the gym when we have a lawn to mow!

For picking up leaves and grass clippings, you could either hand rake or take the bicycle concept one step further and use a bicycle to pull a lawn sweeper. These are much ‘greener’ solutions than a leaf blower.

Certainly these ‘manual’ methods depend on a lot of factors (size of lawn, slope of lawn, fitness of homeowner, etc.), but every little bit helps!

Now that Fall is upon us, let’s challenge ourselves to do our part in reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that we produce during our Fall Yard Cleanup efforts.

If you have any questions about how you can get started on your Path To A Green Home, please peruse our website or contact us directly.