WHEN YOU THINK of lawn care and its impact on energy sources, act of mowing the grass is probably what comes first to mind. Traditional lawn care, in fact, consumes oil and natural gas in numerous ways: 1) Mowing — Yale University has estimated that the U.S. uses more than 600,000,000 gallons of gas to mow and trim lawns each year, or about two gallons of gas for every man, woman and child, or five gallons per household. Mowers also consume additional engine oil in their crankcases and two-stroke mowers consume oil in their fuel. 2) Watering — According to a California study, in many areas — especially in the West where water must be moved great distances from reservoirs — the amount of fuel needed to pump the water is at least equal to the fuel used in mowing. 3) Fertilizing — Creating synthetic nitrogen requires the heating of natural gas to 750 to 1,200 degrees to combine atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia in the Haber-Bosch process. The amount of natural gas required to make approximately 200 bags of lawn fertilizer would heat your home for a year. Each 40-pound bag contains the fossil fuel equivalent of approximately 2.5-3 gallons of gasoline. Transporting these bags of fertilizer from the factory and to your home requires additional fuel. 4) Cleanup — Power blowers, brooms and rakes also use fuel. Additional resources are consumed when yard wastes are removed to the landfill or incinerator.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 18:36:07 +0000