My last entry described the very real possibility of injuries resulting from the use of lawn mowers. A few people thought the odds were with them on that one. Fair enough. Next time you hear your fence getting whacked by a rock picked up by your lawn mower blade, you might want to think about those odds again…however, today I want to cover a sure thing and that is grass clippings.
Those little green clippings seem innocent enough, and you’d think they’d just break down nicely like the table scraps in your backyard composter, but grass clippings dumped in landfill actually contribute greatly to global warming.
The reason grass clippings contribute to global warming is that in a densely packed covered landfill they don’t have access to the elements -especially oxygen- that help them break down in an aerobic process (unlike a well-functioning compost pile). With the absence of air, sun and rain, grass clippings decompose anaerobically (without oxygen) and create methane, a potent greenhouse gas 21 times more effective at trapping radiant heat than carbon dioxide. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the number-one source of human-caused methane emissions to the atmosphere is buried waste. In fact, landfills contribute 10% of the gases that are warming the globe.
For this reason, many countries around the world and approximately half of all of the landfills in the U.S. have made it illegal to landfill grass clippings. Additionally, grass clippings rot in the landfills, introducing pesticides and fertilizers as well as creating leachate which ultimately contaminates our community drinking water supplies.
The average lawn produces clippings at a rate of about 7.25 pounds per square foot each year. The average lawn measures approximately 650 square feet, resulting in a total of 4700 pounds or 2.35 TONS of clippings a year per lawn! That’s just a single lawn, folks. Last year Americans threw away a stunning 31 MILLION tons of grass clippings. Is there a “greener” grass out there?
If you want the look of a sod lawn but want an eco-friendly alternative, you should consider a product like Onelawn, an artificial grass that is 100% recyclable and will last 15 to 20 years. That’s 15 to 20 years of NO CLIPPINGS, which means no landfill, no methane gas and no water pollution. And did I mention no more mowing? Save your back and help save the planet. Install a synthetic lawn today! If you are interested in the San Francisco Bay Area artificial lawn of choice, contact onelawn toll free at 1-877-661-5296. www.onelawn.com
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