Earth911 Podcast: Consumer Reports’ New Electric Yard Tool Recommendations

Earth911 Podcast: Consumer Reports’ New Electric Yard Tool Recommendations

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Welcome to the most popular a part of summer time, when the heat and smoke season could have you ever your yard and pondering that it’s time to improve from gasoline garden tools to electric, or to go back to manual tools. Tobie Stanger, a senior editor at Consumer Reports, joins the dialog to speak concerning the impartial, nonprofit product evaluation website’s choice to endorse electrical garden tools, particularly for smaller lawns. According to the National Resources Defense Council, gasoline mowers, edgers, trimmers, and blowers are noisy, and their two-stroke engines pollute 20 to 300 occasions greater than a automotive per hour of operation. A 2011 Environmental Protection Agency report concluded that gasoline garden tools emits massive quantities of three volatile organic compounds which might be recognized carcinogens, benzene, 1,3 butadiene, and formaldehyde. The setting and our neighborhoods can be higher off with out gas-powered garden tools.

Tobie Stanger, senior editor at Consumer Reports
Tobie Stanger, senior editor at Consumer Reports, is our visitor on Sustainability in Your Ear.

Tobie has coated home equipment, turbines, lawnmowers, and far more for greater than 30 years and is without doubt one of the most tuned-in observers of the electrification of client merchandise. We’ll discover out why Consumer Reports concludes that gasoline yard tools nonetheless has the benefit in some instances and discover the important thing options and performance to search for when selecting electrical options to polluting gasoline tools. Check out the electrical yard tools manufacturers she discusses when buying, together with Ryobi, Kobalt, Stihl, Greenworks, Husquarvana, and EGO. To discover a assortment of Consumer Reports critiques of electrical garden instruments, go to Gas vs. Electric Lawn Mower: Which Is Better? (membership is required to see product scores).