Mowing your lawn for one hour with a conventional gasoline-powered lawn mower can cause more air pollution than driving from Madison to Chicago in a new car.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 7% of all summertime emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in southeastern Wisconsin are produced by lawn and garden equipment. VOCs form ozone and smog that contribute to breathing problems and asthma.

Trade in your old gasoline-powered mower for a new manual model or an electric corded or rechargeable cordless lawn mower. You'll save time and money and help the environment.

Manual mowers are excellent for small lawns. They are inexpensive, quiet, easy to maintain and healthy to use.

Electric mowers work well for small to medium lawns. Modern pollution controls required for utility plants make this option much cleaner than gasoline mowers.

Electric mowers are:

• Inexpensive to operate—about $5 per year for electricity.
• Easy to maintain—no costly engine tune-ups or messy oil changes.
• Clean—no spilled oil or gasoline, no exhaust fumes, significantly reduced air pollution.
• Quiet—about half the noise of gasoline mowers.
• Easy to start—push-button starting, no more yanking on a starter cord.
  

Push mowers
American Lawn Mower Co.
Black and Decker
Homelite
Neuton Mower
Remington
Sears
Sunlawn
Worx

Riding mowers
Ariens

Automatic or robotic mowers
Belrobotics Bigmow
Friendly Robotics Robomow
Kyodo America LawnBott

Manual and electric mowers are available at many area lawn equipment retailers. Check the yellow pages for retailers near you.