Mower swap on tap
Homeowners, if you've ever thought about ditching your messy, polluting gasoline-powered lawnmower, here's your chance: Swap it for a cleaner, deeply discounted new battery-powered job.
On Saturday (6/11), consumers can turn in their old gas-powered mowers for a marked-down rechargeable Black & Decker mower. Buyers get 31 percent off the $379 sticker price for an 18-inch, 36-volt model and 33 percent off the $429 ticket for one with a 19-inch blade and a removable battery.
The swap will take place from noon to 4 p.m. at Cardinal Shehan School, 5407 Loch Raven Boulevard. But don't procrastinate - only 200 mowers will be on hand to sell.
Why go to the trouble? Because more than 17 million gallons of gas get spilled each year nationwide refueling lawn and garden equipment. Some of that winds up in the nearest water way, and some gets into the air, adding to our region's choking summer smog. Even the gas that gets in the tank pollutes: a single 3.5-horsepower gas mower emits as much smog-forming exhaust as a new car driven 340 miles.
And if you let the mulching mower mulch and leave off bagging the grass clippings, you can have a healthy lawn without needing to fertilize as much - another help for stressed local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. That's why the city of Baltimore and the local watershed group Blue Water Baltimore have teamed up to co-sponsor B&D's mower swap. For more, go here.
(Old mowers being turned in for new electric ones. 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)
Comments
This is a great program. Is it possible to find a place that will take lawn mowers that aren't needed anymore? I have an old lawnmower and don't have a lawn anymore, and I would love to get rid of it in an environmentally-friendly way.
TW: They'll take your old mower if you just want to turn it in - though obviously they'd love to sell you a new one.
Also, you should know that B&D says the mowers turned in will be disassembled, with some steel and alumninum parts recycled. The remaining parts will be disposed of "per the Environmental Protection Agency's guildelines for gas disposal," a B&D spokeswoman informs me. None of the old mowers will be resold.
Posted by: BP | June 9, 2011 11:22 AM