Landscaping 1

Ecological Footprint:

Landscaping

Michael Villanova

Environmental Issues

Spring 2014

Landscaping 2

Table of Contents I. Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………....3

II. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….3-6

IIA. History of Landscaping……………………………………………………………3-4

IIB. Types of Lawnmowers…………………………………………………………….4-5

IIC. Types of Fertilizers…………………………………………………………………..5

IID. Frequency of Mower and Fertilizer Use (National vs. Personal)………................5-6

III. Extraction of Fertilizer……………………………………………………………………...6-8

IIIA. Nutrients and Forms………………………………………………………………...6

IIIB. Extraction of Nutrients……………………………………………………………6-7

IIIC. How Its Made……………………………………………………………………..7-8

IV. Irrigation Used with Fertilizer……………………………………………………………...8-9

IVA. Different Sprinkler System Options………………………………………………..8

IVB. Water Used with Each Irrigation System……………………………...................8-9

V. Impact of Landscaping…………………………………………………………………….9-10

VA. Consumption of Fertilizer…………………………………………………………...9

VB. Pollution………………………………………………………………………….9-10

VI. Alternatives……………………………………………………………………………...10-11

VIA. Alternative Lawnmowers………………………………………………………….10

VIB. Alternative Fertilizers………………………………………………………….10-11

VIC. Alternative Irrigation………………………………………………………………11

VII. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...11-12

VIII. References……………………………………………………………………………...13-14

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Abstract

Landscaping is an activity that is practiced by almost every single household across the

United States. Landscaping has lots of ecological impacts in forms of pollution that are

generated as a byproduct from the activity. Lawnmowers generate emissions that contribute to

air pollution. Fertilizers are the greatest pollutants resulting from landscaping. Fertilizers are

composed of nutrients that are extracted from the Earth. Fertilizers come in solid or liquid form.

In order for fertilizers to work when used as a solid, it must be dissolved with water through

some kind of irrigation system. Irrigation systems vary in the amount of area in which they

cover as well as the amount of water that they use. Alternative lawnmowers, fertilizers, and

irrigation systems are available to landscapers to reduce the amount of pollution emitted through

landscaping. The methods that people use while landscaping must be changed in order to protect

the environment, human health, and the landscapes for future generations to come.

Introduction

Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land.

These activities consist of four elements which include living elements, natural elements, human

elements, and abstract elements. Living elements are things such as flora or fauna which are

most commonly observed through gardening. Natural elements consist of landforms, terrain

shape, or bodies of water. Human elements consist of structures, buildings, or fences. Abstract

elements consist of weather and lighting conditions like if people use solar lights to brighten

their landscape design (Vaughan, 2013). Landscaping is considered to be both a science and an

art. The art aspect of landscaping is what makes it enjoyable whereas the science portion of it is

what makes it harmful to the environment due to fertilizers used for all landscape activities.

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The history of landscaping dates back to ancient cultures like Persia, Egypt, Greece, and

Rome. It then began to boom during the Renaissance period. Landscaping made its way from

Europe to America in the early 1800s, fathered by Frederick Law Olmsted. Landscaping was a

huge factor that was used in designing urban and metropolitan parks, suburban residential areas,

college campuses, and many major cities ("History of landscape," 2014). Doctor Dan Moscovici

stated how landscaping was a major force in urban planning for recreational purposes. From the

Great Depression until present day today, landscaping deals with public projects in the designing

and planning of parks, towns, and roads. Today, landscaping is an ongoing trend that has been

practiced by almost every single person in the United States at least once in their lifetime

(Quigley, 2001).

When it comes to landscaping, the biggest activity that is first thought of is recreational

lawn mowing. There are a variety of different lawnmowers to choose from to cut grass with.

First off, there are motorized lawn mowers, manual push lawn mowers, electric lawn mowers,

and robotic lawn mowers. Different types of motorized mowers include rotary push mowers,

riding mowers, zero-turn mowers, and tractors. Rotary mowers are good for recreational

mowing for residential areas and often come with motorized wheels so that they are self

propelled. Riding mowers allow for the person mowing to sit down, making it easier to mow

large areas of grass. Zero-turn mowers are used for easy maneuverability since they have a zero

turning radius. They are rather expensive and are used by landscaping companies to do efficient

jobs. Tractors are equipped with a mowing blade between the front a back wheels. They are

extremely versatile in the sense that they can be used for numerous other landscaping activities

as well (Reber).

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Manual push mowers are used recreationally because they are easy to maintain, make

nice cuts, and are the best for the environment. Electric mowers are quite similar to motorized

mowers except for the fact that they run on electric instead of gas. Electric mowers come with a

cord or are cordless, and are very quiet and economically friendly. A special lawn mower type is

a robotic lawn mower. Robotic mowers automatically mow the lawn within an electrical

perimeter that is constructed of buried wires. They are very pricy but are also non-polluting and

very smart since they can return to their battery charging dock when the battery is running low

all on their own. Another form of a robotic mower operates the same way except instead of

being battery operated; it runs off of solar power (Reber).

Many landscapers compete with one another to obtain a better looking lawn. A major

factor in this competition is the use of fertilizers. Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material

of natural or synthetic origin that is added to soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential

to the growth of plants. There are two main types of fertilizers, organic and synthetic. Organic

fertilizers are made of naturally occurring mineral deposits, and organic material such as bone or

plant meal or composted manure. Synthetic fertilizers are made by chemically processing raw

material and are most commonly known as commercial fertilizers ("The two types," 2010).

Recreational lawn mowing and using fertilizers is common amongst most Americans.

Studies show that everyone who engages in landscaping have used fertilizers at least once and

nearly eighty percent of landscapers used fertilizers today. Studies also show that an estimated

38 million Americans mow their lawns every year anywhere from once a week to once a month

(Lawson, 2013). When you do the math, out of the 38 million people who mow their lawns, over

30 million of them use fertilizers annually. I am guilty of lawn mowing because I mow my lawn

every other week. I am also guilty of using fertilizers because I have bought the Scott’s four step

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process which consists of four different bags of fertilizers that are designed to be used quarterly

throughout the growing season to make your lawn look green and healthy.

Extraction of Fertilizer

Fertilizers typically consist of six macronutrients and various micronutrients. The six

macronutrients include nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.

Aside from these nutrients, the only other elements that are required by plants in order to grow

are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. These three elements are supplied by water and through the

air (Shakhashiri).

Fertilizers also come in various forms. The most common form of fertilizer is solid

fertilizer which comes in either granulated form or powder form. The other form of fertilizer is

liquid fertilizer. Liquid fertilizer has more advantages because it has an immediate effect on

plants and it can also cover a much larger area. Slow-release fertilizers come in solid form and

are good for the plants because they prevent burning by slowly releasing the nutrients instead of

overloading the plants with all the nutrients at once (Zimmer, 1999).

The three most abundant compounds that make up fertilizers are nitrogen, phosphorous,

and potassium. One would think that since 78% of the air is made up of nitrogen that plants

would be able to use it, but the nitrogen from the air is not accessible to plants do to its chemical

bonds. Nitrogen fertilizers are made from a process called the Haber-Bosch process. This

process combines hydrogen from natural gas with nitrogen from the air to for ammonia (Clark,

2013). This ammonia is then used to make nitrogen fertilizer.

Phosphate fertilizer is extracted through phosphate rock. Nitric acid is used to dissolve

phosphate out of the rock which is known as the nitrophosphate process. After this process is

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complete, both nitrogen and phosphorous are present in the fertilizer. Potassium comes from

marine deposits that are buried deep in the earth. Potassium is extracted through conventional

shaft mining and the ore is ground into powder. Once all three of these compounds have been

extracted from their sources, they are combined to form compound inorganic commercial

fertilizers (Shakhashiri).

Once nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium have all been extracted, they must then be

granulated and blended together to produce fertilizer in the most usable form. To blend these

compounds together, all of the solid materials are put into a rotating drum which has an inclined

axis. As the drum rotates, the solid pieces of fertilizer take on spherical shapes. They are then

passed through a screen that separates out adequately sized particles. A coating of inert dust is

applied to the particles to keep them from sticking to each other as well as inhibiting moisture

retention. At the end, the particles are dried and the granulation process is complete ("Inspection

manual for," 2002).

Once the granulation process is complete, the drum is emptied onto a conveyer belt that

brings the fertilizers to the bagging machine. The fertilizers are dumped into a hopper which is

used to fill the large bags. The bags are also on a vibrating surface which allows for better

packing of the fertilizer inside the bags. The bags are filled with the correct amount of pounds,

sealed, and stacked on pallets where they are ready to be shipped to distributors and farmers

("Inspection manual for," 2002).

Fertilizers are regulated by the government, so throughout the entire manufacturing

process, the fertilizers are constantly being tested. Some characteristics being tested include pH,

appearance, density, and melting point. Composition analysis tests are also used to test the total

Landscaping 8

content of each of the compounds like nitrogen and phosphorous within the fertilizer

("Inspection manual for," 2002). The fertilizer needs to pass all of these tests by meeting certain

specifications in order to be sold and used.

Irrigation Used with Fertilizer

In order for granulated fertilizer to work, irrigation is required. Water slowly breaks

down the pellets of fertilizer which then releases all of the nutrients into the soil, allowing plants

to grow. There are two main ways to use water on fertilizer. One way is by using a portable

sprinkler while the other is installing an irrigation system. Portable sprinklers can be used

recreationally on small lawns. Their success rates aren’t very high since the water is shot into

the air and can be carried around if wind is present. As far as irrigation systems go, there are a

couple to choose from. One system that can be installed deals with pop-up heads. They pop up

out of the ground when the system is operating and can come in a variety of different patterns

from spraying to gear driven rotors. Spray head sprinklers are most cost friendly, but gear driven

sprinklers can spray up to fifty feet and cover large lawns or areas. The most economically

friendly type of sprinkler is a drip sprinkler. Instead of spraying, they provide water directly to

the soil and down to the roots. All farmers use fertilizer and most farmers use drip sprinklers due

to their efficiency which is a ninety percent success rate ("Division of water," 2014).

Spray heads and rotor heads sprinkler systems can have a water output varying from 0.6

to 1.7 inches of water per hour. Drip systems vary anywhere from 0.5 to 24 gallons per hour,

depending on the size of the system. The smaller end of the scale pertains to residential use

while the large end of the scale pertains to farmers ("Division of water," 2014). Over one third

of the water used today, thirty-seven percent, is used for irrigation purposes. Water used for

Landscaping 9

irrigation totals 128,000 million gallons per day which equals 144,000 thousand acre-feet per

year (Perlman, 2014).

Impact of Landscaping

The amount of fertilizer being used as well as the amount of people using fertilizer keeps

growing each year. Fertilizer is a $15 to $20 billion annual market in the United States. The

United States uses about thirty million tons of fertilizer each year ("National agricultural

statistics," 2013). Out of all of the nitrogen that is in fertilizer, only a small amount of it is

actually used by plants. A majority of it is either washed away into bodies of water, or filtered

down into the groundwater. The excess nutrients result in significant levels of nitrogen and

phosphorous ending up in water that is used by the public (Whiting, 2011).

Excessive nitrates as pollutants from fertilizers could be very harmful. Excessive nitrates

from drinking water have been known to cause urinary and kidney system disorders. Bacteria in

soils can break down the nitrates from fertilizer into nitrite ions. Nitrite ions are known to reduce

the body’s ability to store oxygen, when consumed. Nitrates from fertilizer could also

chemically react with themselves, producing nitrosamines. Nitrosamines have been known to

cause tumors in laboratory animals which presents a fear that it could happen to humans as well

(Selin, 2011).

Excessive phosphates from fertilizers could be very harmful to the environment. When it

enters bodies of water, it can cause algae blooms. Algae blooms greatly slow down the filtration

of water as well as harm all other living organisms within the bodies of water. When algae dies

and decays, it uses up all of the oxygen in the water which forms a non-livable habitat for any

other organisms due to the lack of oxygen ("Synthetic fertilizer pollution," 2009).

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Excessive use of fertilizer over time will be harmful to farmers because it will result in

low crop yields. Too much fertilizer will result in too many nutrients getting to the plants,

causing them to burn where they turn brown and die. The nitrogen from fertilizers can also

cause the soil’s pH to change over time causing it to be more acidic and killing the beneficial soil

organisms that aid in plant growth. Synthetic fertilizers are also less capable of replacing trace

minerals in soil to improve its biodiversity. The depletion of minerals results in low crop yields

as well as low nutritional value of whatever crops are being grown. Eventually over time,

nothing will be able to grow in that soil anymore ("Synthetic fertilizer pollution," 2009).

Alternatives

When it comes to landscaping, there are a variety of different choices that can be made to

make landscaping have much less of an environmental impact. The first choice that landscapers

should make is the type of lawnmower that they use. EPA statistics state that gas mowers

represent five percent of United State’s air pollution. Every weekend, 54 million Americans

mow their lawns using 800 million gallons of gas per year as well as spill 17 million gallons of

gas per year while filling there mowers. The EPA also states how a gas powered mower running

for an hour produces as many volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides as eleven new

cars each being driven for one hour ("Cleaner air: Gas," 2008). The most environmentally

friendly lawnmower that can be used is the manual push mower. This mower does not have any

emissions and gets the job done with a clean, straight cut and a zero carbon footprint. Using a

manual reel mower will reduce emissions as well as reduce the amount of fuel being consumed

and spilled.

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Another alternative that will allow for landscaping to be environmentally friendly is the

types of fertilizers being used. Organic fertilizers should be used over synthetic fertilizers

because they will avoid the depletion of farmlands, the pollution of waterways, and the

destruction of ecosystems. Materials that are natural like animal manure and decaying plant

material are forms of non-hazardous fertilizers. Organic fertilizers release much more slowly

than synthetic fertilizers, but they do not cause acidity in the soil or burn the plants. Organic

fertilizers also replace trace minerals and maintain the biodiversity of the soil. Organic fertilizers

are as effective as synthetic fertilizers over longer periods of use as well as much safer for the

environment ("Synthetic fertilizer pollution," 2009).

A final alternative to environmentally friendly landscaping would be other forms of

irrigation. The most popular form of eco-friendly irrigation is the use of rain barrels. The

purpose of rain barrels is to catch rain water and reuse it for irrigation purposes. A rain barrel

collects and stores water from your roof by placing it under a gutter. According to EPA

statistics, lawn and garden watering account for forty percent of total household water use during

the summer. Rain barrels can reduce this number to zero if conditions are right and enough rain

is collected. Rain barrels come in handy during droughts and the water is good for lawns and

gardens because it does not contain any contaminants. Rain barrels also divert water from storm

drains and runoff into streams, and the use of the water collected is free ("What is a," 2009).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the ecological footprint of landscaping could be huge or minute, depending

on the choices made to conduct landscape activities. In today’s society, everyone is trying to live

by the motto, “Go Green.” If people want to actually go green, landscaping is a field where lots

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of small and rather cheap changes could be made to have a positive impact on the environment

and pollution. It all comes down to the separation between people who want to be lazy and

people who want to do well for the environment. Changing the type of lawnmower that one uses

from gas powered to manual could drastically change air pollution levels. The only difference is

that a manual mower involves more work because it is not self propelled and it has to be pushed

by the user, but it is also noticeably cheaper. Organic fertilizers should also be used if any type

of fertilizer is going to be used at all. Organic fertilizers may be a little more expensive, but they

are good for the environment and human health compared to synthetic fertilizers. Rain barrels

are an excellent source for retaining water to be used for irrigation. Rain barrels provide free

water compared to a higher water bill and it is also a form of recycling. If every landscaper

works together, they will find plenty of ways to landscape more sustainably. The question

comes down to, is using fertilizer and not landscaping in an environmentally friendly manor

worth your health issues or possibly your life, or should everyone be more ecologically friendly

for everyone’s sake including the environment and preserve it for future generations?

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References

Clark, J. (2013, April). The haber process. Retrieved from

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/equilibria/haber.html

Cleaner air: Gas mower pollution facts. (2008). Retrieved from

http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/faq-environment.htm

Division of water resources: Sprinkler systems. (2014). Retrieved from

http://www.conservewater.utah.gov/outdooruse/sprinklersystem/

History of landscape architecture. (2014, January). Retrieved from

http://inasla.org/content.php?page=History_of_Landscape_Architecture

Inspection manual for fertilizers industry. (2002, July). Retrieved from

www.eeaa.gov.eg/ippg/../Fertilizers/Fertilizers english/Sec 2.doc

Lawson, W. (2013, May 31). Study: Lawn mowing equals car trip. Retrieved from

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98532

National agricultural statistics service. (2013). Retrieved from

http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/Acre/Acre-06-30-2008.pdf

Perlman, H. (2014, February 24). Irrigation water use. Retrieved from

http://water.usgs.gov/edu/wuir.html

Quigley, M. (2001, January). The american lawn: An unrequited love. Retrieved from

http://ohioline.osu.edu/sc177/sc177_14.html

Reber, D. (n.d.). Lawn mower types. Retrieved from http://www.lawnexperts.net/lawn-mower-

types

Selin, N. (2011). Environmental guidelines and regulations for nitrosamines. Retrieved from

http://www.tcmda.com/Global/Aminrapporter/MIT nitrosamines report final.pdf

Shakhashiri. (n.d.). Agricultural fertilizers: Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous. Retrieved

from http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/pdf/Agricultural_Fertilizers.pdf

Synthetic fertilizer pollution. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.all-recycling-

facts.com/fertilizer-pollution.html

The two types of fertilizers. (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.eaglewoodgourmetfood.com/types-of-fertilizers.html

Vaughan, P. (2013, Septmeber 19). Four elements of landscape design. Retrieved from

http://www.totallandscapecare.com/four-elements-of-landscape-design/

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What is a rain barrel?. (2009, August). Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/region3/p2/what-is-

rainbarrel.pdf

Whiting, D. (2011, December). Plant nutrition. Retrieved from

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/gardennotes/231.html

Zimmer, A. (1999). All about fertilizer. Retrieved from

http://www.oxford.net/~vigorocn/webpage/fert/forms/