Gas, Electric and Hand Mowing Compared

Hello,

I find the email comparing different types of mowers interesting, for a Social Marketing list-serv. Sometimes, the reason a person doesn't do the "right" thing is a lack of knowledge or information. In those cases, giving information may change behaviour. Therefore, often, there is a mis-perception that people will automatically change their behaviour when given information. The email below is an example of giving information. The question is whether it motivates people to change their behaviour. It may convince some people on this email list (since my understanding is that people subscribing to this list-serv are environmentalists), however, it is therefore also likely that the people on this list are likely to be informed. Almost no-one will say that they don't care about cleanliness of the air or the health of their children ...so why don't more people use push mowers?

1. Economics - who wants to spend money on something that they aren't sure will work for them? Perhaps it would be useful to have push mowers available for loan or rent on a trial basis.

2. Practicality (and ecomomics) - many lawns are too bumpy for push mowers, and it would cost a lot of money to flatten the yard and re-seed it

3. Priorities - many people are struggling to do simpler things, like bring their own cloth bags when shopping. They would not see using a push-mower as a high priority.

4. Norms - everyone else is (perceived to be) using noisy mowers, so why should "I" be different? I'm probably missing some reasons, however, I think my point is made...social marketing is partly about understanding what the barriers are, and using that knowledge to convince people to change their behaviour. And very often, the barriers are not simply a lack of information.

Sincerely,
Karen Gventer

I used a push mower when I was a teenager. You can add that push mowers require a lot more effort (you supply all the energy to propel the blades to cut the grass) and older folks or those with less muscle will find them harder to use. Push mowers also take longer to mow a given area of lawn than power mowers do. In this "pressed for time society" that can be a negative. I prefer the shooshing sound of a well tuned push mower to the racket of a gas mower, or even the more subdued racket of electric mowers. But I not sure I could readily handle a push mower on my sloped and slightly bumpy lawn given my current age. There is also the issue of accessibility. Ads and in store displays of power mowers are easy to find. If you want to buy a push mower you have to go out of your way to find someplace to buy one.

Hi Mel et al,

There is also the issue of accessibility. Ads and in store displays of power mowers are easy to find. If you want to buy a push mower you have to go out of your way to find someplace to buy one. It's not really accessibility, is it? "Conventional" standards and peer pressure are the basic culprits. People have grown up with the idea that the only type of lawn mower is a machine-powered one, just as (in N America at least) people are not "aware" that one can dry clothes by any means other than in a power-guzzling drier. The latest "essential" motor-driven accessory to be added to the garden shed is the device for sweeping up leaves; its horrid ear-piercing buzzer should be registered as noise pollution, and in any case the wind makes mockery of all the noise and wasted fuel by simply blowing the leaves back again. Raking leaves by hand is good for the lawn, bad for the flower-beds (leaves form a frost shield and also contribute humus), and good for the stomach muscles; a rake is very cheap and lasts for years with no mantainence or running costs.

Elizabeth Griffin
(Victoria, Canada)

I think accessibility is a factor, and it is linked to conventional standards. Suppose someone moves from an apartment to a house with a lawn. They figure they need a mower. They may not know much about mowing or ecological issues. They go to their local Sears, or K-mart, or Walmart or Target, and look in the mower section. They see power mowers. Unless they are sufficiently informed and motivated, and willing to take the extra time to hunt down a place that sells hand mowers, they will just buy what is readily accessible. It's an intertwined set of factors. Consumers in part buy what is hyped and marketed and what they believe to be socially acceptable and cool. Retailers stock what they think consumers are most likely to buy and what they can readily get from manufacturers. Manufacturers make what makes them a profit (I suspect you can make more money from a power mower than a push mower)and what they think retailers will buy, and consumers buy what is presented to them in the retail settings. (there is a mega million dollar industry focusing on product packaging and another one on product placement on retail shelves to shape consumer decisions.) If a green group could convince a local hardware or garden store to stock up on push mowers, and then do some marketing to residents on the benefits of such mowers, maybe hooking up with realestate agents to offer coupons to new homebuyers good for rebates on buying hand mowers, then you would see hand mower use increase in that community. The easier it is for a person to change a behavior, the more likely they are to change it.

I have practical experience using a push mower as an older, average sized female. I can lift it out of the shed and down steps to the area to be mowed. The lawn is bumpy (but not on a slope) and that poses no problem except requiring more patience. The push mower adds a little to the exercise I get doing chores. For older people it is essential to use the muscles in order to keep muscle tone. So older folks especially could consider using a push mower as an additional way of maintaining strength. I encourage older people to avoid anything that adds to the degradation of their hearing or impairs their breathing, such as gas mowers. To kill any grass you want to get rid of, cover it with several layers of newspaper printed with soy ink. Add topsoil on top and you will be ready soon to do real gardening. Push mowers are expensive and hard to find and that is an obstacle, however should not deter anyone who is determined to have the benefits of a push mower.

Marion Huxtable
Port Townsend

I too only use only a push mower, but did you know the best reason to use one is it cuts the grass blades in the correct direction. Automated mowers cut ground covers horizontally which tear the blades of grass or plants allowing for uneven cuts and tearing. This then makes the plant material susceptible to all kinds of disease and infestation. When you use a push mower it cuts vertically over the grass making an even cut, cutting against the grain of the grass which does not allow tears in the blades therefore reducing the need for chemicals, herbicides or pesticides. Keeping the mower sharp is the secret but in the long run improves the health of the ground cover. While push mowers maybe as expensive as any other mower in the long run they last twice as long and need no gas or electricity adding more costs. It does depend on the area one needs to cut, but I enjoy the exercise and the connection to the grass. Nothing like the small of fresh cut grass without the fumes and noise.

Cindy English
Toronto, Ontario

Apropos of *sustainable* behavior, what beats fresh cut grass without fumes and noise is a neighborhood of gardens. You can obtain a copy of _Food Not Lawns_ from Chelsea Green Press (people, not, Amazon): http://www.chelseagreen.com/2006/items/foodnotlawns and there are groups doing it at: http://www.foodnotlawns.com/ The very best lawn mower is no lawn mower (or lawn) at all.

Cheers!
Adam

If we want sustainable behaviour, we need enough knowledge to talk about 'sustainble costing' and 'life cycle economics'. And sustainable advantages and disadvantages.

1. How much lawn does one need?/want? For what?

2. And what is the life-cycle cost in $ of a push mower, versus an electric mower, versus the gasoline mower? In terms of initial cost, cost of fuel, cost of oil, cost of repairs?

3. What is the life-cycle cost in greenhouse gases of each? In terms of extracting resources, manufacturing, transportation, retailing and dealing with waste materials?

4. What are the health effects of each?

A) How many accidents are there each year with each? How much does that cost the individual? How much does it cost society?

B) How much exercise does one get pushing each? How much is that exercise worth if it were a health-club membership? How many calories are burned pushing each over an average lawn?

5. How easy/hard is it to push each?

6. How well does each cut on average lawn & bumpy lawn?

7. How much does each contribute to noise pollution? What is peace and quiet worth? Since we know that the lifestyle of the average North American would require 4 planets if everyone on earth lived that way, and since we have a problem with global warming caused by greenhouse gases, and given that we are causing one of the greatest mass extinctions in the history of the world, I would suggest that if at all possible, hand mowing beats electric beats gas. And small lawns trump large lawns. But it would be nice to have a 'scorecard' for each to support my 'gut' instinct.

Norm Ruttan

iWasteNot Systems
www.iwastenotsystems.com
1-800-630-7864

I'm also a user and believer in push mowers. I have a brand new Brill mower and about 1000 sq ft of relatively flat lawn to mow. There are some disadvantages that I was not aware of when I started using it. It cuts grass fine, but it does not cut weeds very well. Maybe over time I'll manage to get rid of the weeds, but now the stalks of weeds, even the grass seed stalk are not cut. So when I'm done cutting I have all these random stalks sticking up in spite of repeated runs over them, with sharp and properly adjusted blades. Any stick (even relatively small ones) or piece of bark mulch (that has migrated from a bed) or gravel will stop a push mower dead in its tracks. So I don't use bark mulch and I need to comb the lawn pretty carefully to pick up any sticks. All in all, I'm still happy with the push mower, but the above are not issues with a power mower.

Doug Simpson
Boston, Massachusetts

Hi Norm,

If we want sustainable behaviour, we need enough knowledge to talk about 'sustainble costing' and 'life cycle economics'. And sustainable advantages and disadvantages.

1. How much lawn does one need?/want? For what? If I may suggest it, there was one, quite key, factor missing from your list. A grass patch (even one that doesn't deserve the description "lawn") is not only more friendly for the kids than a concrete yard, and restful to the eyes, etc. It is also a means of decreasing CO2 through photosynthesis. Every green plant does that, and concrete/grit/gravel/dirt/... does not.

Elizabeth Griffin
(Victoria, BC)

Hi Cindy,

Sorry if I gave the impression I'm against lawns. I have a small one myself. Over the years we've cut the amount of lawn down, and increased the amount of native vegetation. But I was suggesting a factor we might wish to consider is the amount of lawn by comparison to how much mower we need (rather than whether we need a mower at all because we have only hard surfaces instead of lawns). If we have smaller lawns, a human-powered or electric mower is more apt to be chosen. Whereas with large lawns the only option seems to be a gas-powered mower, and if we have very large lawns (which are common where I live in the 1000 islands area, we need riding mowers). And as you say, we need to consider the 'worse' alternatives. Hard surfaces-concrete/dirt/paving stones are worse than lawns, but lawns (which are close to monocultures and require watering and fertilizer in most cases) are worse than natural vegetation (which requires no watering or fertilizer) all else being equal.

Norm

I especially like Norm's first question. There is a basic rule of thumb that one could keep things in sustainable perspective: Buy a push-mower you can afford; Pick a warm afternoon and cut as much lawn as you can mow, or reasonably want to mow; Then, plan to remove all the lawn that did not get cut and replace it with appropriate perennials or edibles. In other words, choose a sustainable technology, and make it work, rather than pretending that any of us can really afford to do otherwise.

Cheers,
Neil

Nice idea Neil. In some situations you can just let it grow up into a nice meadow in other areas you may get run out of town for doing that, so it can be initially expensive to plant ornamentals but in the long run the cost will be less than all that mowing and gas, etc.

Gary Fish

Manager,
Pesticide Programs
Maine Board of Pesticides Control
28 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0028
207-287-7545
207-624-5020 fax
http://www.ThinkFirstSprayLast.org
http://www.YardScaping.org

Gary,

have you thought about wild flowers? I come from the tall grass prairies where there have been indigenous wild flowers and tall grasses mixing for millennia. Unfortunately, much of that habitat has been ripped out. However, landscape architects in the Plains and Prairies are now tapping into the inherent aesthetic beauty of, and ecologically-tuned efficiencies of wild flowers and tall grasses. I am told that it can be tricky to grow wild flowers by sowing seeds on a large area??? I am personally considering trying this approach on a two acre site. Any insight on obtaining and sowing wild flower seeds in the Prairies would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Neil

Prairie Nurseries in Wisconsin has some of the best advice and mixes I have seen available. Neil Diboll has lots of good ideas. They have a web site at http://www.prairienursery.com/

Gary Fish

Manager, Pesticide Programs
Maine Board of Pesticides Control
28 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0028
207-287-7545
207-624-5020
fax http://www.ThinkFirstSprayLast.org
http://www.YardScaping.org 

A gas mower will have more power and be built of higher quality materials. This translates into a better cut. Despite what some manufacturer ratings will claim, if I remember right you can only get about 3 HP out of a typical residential 110V 15 Amp circuit, and a long extension cord will cut that down even more.

Mike Roger
United Kingdom