The idea of a green lawn mower, or one that is more friendly to the environment, is not something we often give a lot of thought to. After all most of us only wheel out that oily, smoking run down mower from the shed once every week or two, and then we only use it for at most an hour.

So is it worth bothering buying a mower that is environmentally friendly? Pushing a mower around for an hour produces a startling array and quantity of toxins. Claims about the quantity of pollution produced by a petrol powered mower vary wildly. The EPA in the US claims that the standard mower produces as much pollution as 40 late model cars run for the same period of time. While this sounds ridiculous, it is the most conservative estimate.

This is not due to fuel consumption but rather the products of the combustion in the mower engine. Mowers and other motorized garden equipment has not been subject to emissions testing until recently in the US and is still unchecked in many countries, meaning that the vast majority of mowers in operation have not been built to any emissions standards at all.

This has allowed the manufacturers to build engines that did not need to be efficient at burning the fuel. This results in many pollutants that could otherwise be avoided.

The list is impressive and includes organic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as well as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ozone. All of these are very harmful chemicals both to humans and the atmosphere. CNN has also reported that over 35 million liters of lawn mower fuel is spilled each year as owners refuel the machines, causing further air and ground pollution.

Electric mowers overcome these problems. Assuming you are buying your electricity from an accredited Green Energy provider, you can mow to your heart's content and not have to worry about emissions.

Another option is the hand propelled mower. These are fine as long as the grass is already short, but I have found that longer grass tends to wrap itself around the axle and requires regular removal, which is a tedious business. In my opinion the best environmental solution is a combination of a hand mower for short grass and an electric grass cutter for the overgrown areas.