DEQ’s Charge Your Yard Incentive Program to help lawn care businesses reduce emissions

Photo: Utah DEQ

UTAH — The move to reduce air pollution and create a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle is an important step forward for Utahns. Winter inversion cycles have been an ever-present problem for all, with the compounding problem stemming from the trapping of particulates; finding ways to reduce emissions is the answer to reducing the severity of those events, but the question is how.

The Utah Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Division has been working to find solutions for years, with significant progress being made. One of those efforts is the Charge Your Yard Incentive Program. Lawn care businesses can receive a credit of up to $3,000 in order to buy electric lawn equipment.

The businesses must be licensed in Utah and have a gas-powered leaf blower or string trimmer to recycle and operate 100% in Davis, Salt Lake, Tooele, Utah, or Weber counties. Each of the counties listed has air quality problems during the winter inversion cycles. Registration for the program must be completed by the deadline on April 24 at noon.

LAWN CARE BUSINESSES – Apply now to the Charge Your Yard Incentive Program!

You can receive up to $3,000 for the purchase of new electric string trimmers or leaf blowers.

Learn more at https://t.co/xIx1VYAJ6j. pic.twitter.com/qdekOtDe25

— Utah DEQ (@UtahDEQ) April 11, 2023

From their social media post, the DEQ equates the use of a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour to the emissions produced while driving from Ogden to Disneyland in California.  Using a gas string trimmer for an hour is the same as driving 646 miles or roughly the same distance between Salt Lake City and Fontana, California.

More information about the program and other initiatives can be found on the DEQ Air Division website.

Inversion and Air Quality: Utah’s unwanted winter phenomenon