Tag: lawns

Amid California’s Drought, Business is Booming for Lawn Painters

Posted on by robbie

As California endures year three of one of the worst droughts on record, residents have sacrificed their manicured lawns and blooming gardens, among other things.
But in an effort to brighten up otherwise dead and desolate areas, some landscapers are profiting from painting lawns green, the National Journal reports.
California tightened restrictions on water earlier this summer, fining residents up to $500 for using the scarce resource to shower lawns or wash driveways. Though flourishing lawns are far and few between, looking at blighted landscapes haven’t made it any easier on residents.

“It became a real eyesore, and we live in an area where everyone keeps their yard really nice,” said Jay Torres, a San Bernardino resident. “I heard about a service where people paint your lawn so it looks like the real thing and thought, why not? “

Lawn painting services continue to sprout up throughout the state, using dye that’s typically reserved for golf courses and athletic fields and lasts up to six months. The dye is billed as safe and nontoxic, but more importantly, landscapers are promoting the fact that it’s less expensive than replacing grass altogether with gravel or concrete.

“People think it sounds ridiculous when they first hear about it,” said Jim Power operations manager of LawnLift, a grass paint company in San Diego. “But they try it, and instantly they’re hooked.”

Power said his company has doubled sales this year while another company, Xtreme Green Grass, claims sales have shot up 60 percent. Landscaping company A Lucky Lawn in Long Beach recently sat down with Santa Fe Springs officials, who are considering the idea of painting the withering grass across their public parks, according to owner Drew McClellan.

But as business booms, the drought continues. And until experts are able to get a better handle on water practices, at least residents have one alternative in keeping things green.

MORE: Even as the Drought Continues, Californians Can Drink From a Firehose of Solutions

 
 

This Student-Invented Device Eliminates Almost All of the Emissions from a Very Common Household Polluter

Posted on by robbie

Without a doubt, the only thing that’s green about lawns is its color.
We’ve already gone on a long tirade about this expensive and resource-intensive crop, but did you know that simply mowing your grass once a week comes at a hefty environmental price?
Here’s why: The typical gasoline-powered lawnmower is a huge, filthy polluter. The EPA estimates that in a single hour, these mowers emit 11 times the air pollution of a new car that’s driven in the same amount of time. That’s something that the planet — and our lungs — shouldn’t have to go through just for a nice patch of green. (Unless you own an electric mower, of course!)
That’s where NOx-Out comes in. It’s a one-of-a-kind device from the student engineers at the University of California-Riverside (UCR). By fitting this L-shaped pipe over a regular mower’s muffler, it significantly cuts emissions from lawnmowers more than 90 percent. According to a UCR press release, when an earlier version of the NOx-Out was tested, it cut carbon monoxide by 87 percent; nitrogen oxides by 67 percent and particulate matter by 44 percent. In the current version, 93 percent of particulate matter emissions were eliminated.
The device, which won a huge grant from the EPA’s P3 (People, Prosperity and the Planet) competition, works in a three-step process, UCR says. “First, a glass quartz filter captures particulate matter. Then an ultra-fine spray of urea solution is dispersed into the exhaust stream. The urea spray primes the dirty air for the final stage, when a catalyst converts the harmful nitrogen oxide and ammonia into harmless nitrogen gas and water and releases them into the air.”
MORE: Why New Farm and Construction Equipment Will Improve Air Quality and Save Lives
The idea for the NOx-Out came from team member Rosalva Chavez, a UCR environmental engineering student. Chavez suspected that her janitor father, who earned extra money mowing lawns over the weekend, had developed coughing and asthma due to his exposure to emissions via gasoline-powered lawn equipment.
The best news about this story? As TreeHugger found, the UCR campus will be using these devices on their own lawns, and eventually, the entire University of California system could benefit from cleaner air, thanks to the NOx-Out.
UCR says that team is also thinking about commercializing the product once it’s further refined — selling for about $30 each. When 80 percent of Americans live in a home with a lawn, that’s a small price to pay to help out the planet.
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DON’T MISS: A Roof That Can Clean the Air?

The Big, Environmental Problem with Grass and What This City Wants to Do About It

Posted on by robbie

There’s something about a lush, perfectly manicured patch of green in front of a house that’s quintessentially American. In fact: about 80 percent of homes in the United States have lawns. But growing and maintaining those blades comes with a hefty price tag.
Lawn care, with its constant watering, weeding, fertilizing, and mowing is a $40-billion-a-year industry. And there’s an environmental cost, too. Lawn upkeep is a giant waste of water. The EPA estimates landscape irrigation accounts for nearly one-third of all residential water use — totaling nearly 9 billion gallons per day. That’s a figure that water-pinched states (such as California, Kansas, and New Mexico) cannot afford to squander for a money-, resource-, and time-suck crop that isn’t even edible.
Now, the Sacramento, California City Council has unanimously voted for a “cash for grass” program that will give rebates to residents for getting rid of their lawns and replacing it with drought-friendly plants. (Lovely,  lower maintenance alternatives include perennials, shrubs, stone walkways or fruit and vegetable gardens.) The idea is that homeowners will receive 50 cents per square foot of lawn, up to 1,000 feet. The city has set aside $100,000 for the program and rebates will be issued in April.
MORE: How Catfish Can Help Solve California’s Water Woes
While the spending plan hasn’t yet been finalized, the Sacramento Bee reports that enthusiasm is high for the program and there’s already a waiting list of eager residents. “I think this will really help our residents make a difference in saving water,” said Councilman Kevin McCarty, who proposed the program. “I think it’s time that as a city, we help incentivize action in conservation.”
So could California’s lawns be in peril? With no end to this historic drought in sight, it’s a simple sacrifice that lawn lovers just might have to make.