Perth Voice Interactive

GOT a dirty secret in your back shed?

Probably, says Tim Frodsham, who reckons most people would be unaware how much of a pollution-spewing villain their lawn mower is.

Largely unregulated two-stroke motors get away with emissions that would make a Volkswagen executive blush.

A joint university study published in Nature in 2014 found cancer-causing benzene spewing from two-stroke scooters at levels 146 times higher than what US workers are allowed to breathe in before having to don a mask.

“Waiting in traffic behind a two-stroke scooter, for example, at junctions and while the scooter is idling, may therefore be highly deleterious to health,” the study concluded.

The UN Environment Program also published a document in 2006 which found emissions from a single two-stroke engine, including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and ozone, were “comparable to those from a diesel truck or bus”.

Spurred on by findings such as these, Mr Frodsham has been busy developing a zero-emissions mowing round and is now trying to make it viable through crowd-funding.

“I’m working to acquire a number of cordless electrical power tools which I could charge up the batteries for with a set of solar panels I’ve set up on a purpose-built bike trailer,” Mr Frodsham says.

He does expect to use some mains power until solar technology improves even more, but says he pays the green power premium to ensure it comes from renewable sources: “I plan to take the clippings away in bulk bags, load them on the trailer and run them through worm farms. Then I sell the liquid and solid castings back to the customers.”

Mr Frodsham says the plan is to eventually add an electrical motor to the bicycle trailer he made from recycled bits and pieces, in order to give him greater mobility and capacity.

He’ll also be using his round to convince some customers to convert their water-guzzling, mono-culture lawns into native gardens to increase their carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

His crowdfunding page can be found at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zeroemissionsmowing/zero-emissions-mowing-project