Citizen Participation
Personal Involvement
Air pollution comes from many sources, and all of us who live in Montana contribute directly or indirectly to air pollution in our daily activities. Fortunately, there are many simple ways to reduce our contribution to air pollution and actually promote clean air. Since automobiles are a major source of air pollution in most areas, driving habits and car maintenance can either add to the problem or help to solve it. The following suggestions can help reduce air pollution.
Driving Tips
Plan Ahead: Organize trips and combine errands when possible. Avoid driving during peak traffic periods when stop-and-go traffic is at its worst. This not only saves time and gas, but it also reduces wear and tear on vehicles.
Use Non-Motorized Travel: Try walking or bicycling for short errands, commuting to work or school if you live close enough, and for recreation. Walking and bicycling not only reduce air pollution, but also are good for your health. Research shows that regular walking or bicycling reduces stress, helps with weight control, and reduces the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, and other chronic illnesses.
Drive Fuel Efficient Cars: Look for the most fuel efficient cars or trucks when buying a vehicle.
Avoid High Speeds: Doubling a vehicle's speed quadruples the air resistance. For every mile-per-hour (mph) over 55, the average car or truck loses almost two percent in gas mileage. Driving at high speeds also causes heat build-up and unnecessary tire wear. The emissions have been found to greatly increase over 65, because the emissions control systems were designed for flow rates of 55-60 miles per hour.
Drive Smoothly: It is more fuel efficient to drive at a constant speed than it is to slow down and speed up. Using cruise control can improve highway performance.
Stop and Start Evenly: Gently accelerating reduces gas consumption. Coasting to a stop allows the driver to use the car's momentum, not its fuel.
Don't Idle the Engine Unnecessarily: When stopping for more than one minute, it's more fuel efficient to turn off a vehicle and restart it than to idle for the duration. When stopped by trains, drive-through windows, or waiting for a passenger, don't idle the engine, turn it off.
Travel Light: Don't carry unnecessary items in the vehicle. The more weight a vehicle carries, the more fuel it burns. At the end of winter, remember to remove extra weight placed over tires for improved traction in snow and ice.
Operation and Maintenance of Vehicles
Don't Overfill or "Top Off" the Gas Tank: Even without spilling gasoline, fumes can escape.
Follow Manufacturer's Octane-Level Recommendation: Although some turbo-charged and high performance vehicles require high-octane fuel, using it in other vehicles does not necessarily improve engine performance. The use of higher-octane gasoline than an engine needs drives up the demand for this fuel and increases air pollution because the manufacture of higher-octane gasoline produces more pollutants than lower octane. When high-octane fuels are desired, choose ethanol blends that increase octane without increasing emissions.
Get Regular Engine Tune-ups and Car Maintenance Checks: Tune-ups improve gas mileage and car performance. Spark plugs are especially important because a worn spark plug will cause poor starting and rough idling, which reduce gas mileage
Use the Air Conditioner Wisely: At vehicle speeds less than 35 mph, operating an air conditioner can reduce gas mileage up to 20 percent. If the car interior needs cooling at speeds less than 35 mph, roll down the windows. Above 35 mph, the air conditioner is more energy efficient in newer cars.
Reducing Air Emissions at Home and Work
One source of air pollution is the manufacturing of products for consumers. Transporting these products to market also contributes to air pollution. Consumers can reduce air pollution by selecting products that are manufactured close to home and require less energy to produce and transport. Most consumers can implement the following suggestions to help reduce air pollution.
Conserve Electricity: Coal-fired power plants contribute to air pollution in Montana and the nation. Conserving electricity reduces the amount of coal that is burned and consequently the air pollution.
Conduct an Energy Audit of Your Home: Contact your local utility to schedule an energy audit of your home and act on recommendations to improve energy efficiency. Or, conduct your own energy audit using the Energy Star Software available from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory on the Department of Energy website listed in the back of this publication.
Use Compact Florescent Light Fixtures: Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact florescent lamps. Compact florescent lamps use about one third of the energy to provide the same amount of light as incandescent bulbs and last much longer. While more expensive to purchase, compact florescent lamps pay for themselves in energy savings over the life of the lamp. Visit the Lighting Design Lab website for more recommendations.
Residential wood burning is one of the major contributors to air pollution in Montana. Operating wood stoves only when necessary and burning only dry wood can help reduce the negative impacts of residential burning.
Purchase Appliances that are Energy Efficient and Built to Last a Long Time: Large appliances including refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, water heaters, washers, and dryers are labeled with information on energy efficiency. Look for bright yellow labels or Energy Star labels and use them to compare energy efficiency. Consider the expected useful lifetime of the appliance, the environmental cost of disposing of it and replacing it, with the cost of purchase. Visit the Energy Star website for specific information.
Purchase Efficient Equipment: Purchase computers, copiers, motors, power tools and other equipment that are efficient to operate and designed for the task at hand. Look for Energy Star labeling on computers that indicate if the models are designed to "sleep" or use less energy when they are on, but not in use.
Reduce, Reuse, then Recycle: Follow the hierarchy of first reducing wastes at the source, then reusing goods, and finally recycling. Reducing wastes at the source includes not purchasing or accepting items that are not needed and selecting goods with minimal packaging. Reuse what is available before purchasing new products and provide used items to others that can reuse them. Source reduction and reuse are more beneficial to the environment than recycling because they reduce the energy and resources used in production and eliminate the need to recycle or dispose of the product or packaging.
Turn Equipment Off when Not in Use: Much of the equipment in use today uses energy when it is idle. A computer monitor uses 60 watts of power and screen savers don't reduce consumption. Turn off computer monitors when away for more than 10 minutes. Turn off other equipment at home and in the office when leaving at night.
Recycle: Recycle materials including glass, aluminum and other metals, wood, paper including corrugated and flat cardboard, and plastics. White and computer paper can be recycled; in larger communities, pastel colored paper can be recycled. Recycling these materials cuts down on the amount of pure materials mined or manufactured, and helps to reduce air pollution from processing facilities. Consider the recycling opportunities locally available to reduce transportation to recycling markets.
Buy Recycled: An important part of recycling is to buy recycled products. In order for there to be recycling opportunities, there must be a market for goods produced with recycled materials.
Reduce Household Hazardous Wastes: Hazardous materials are included in some products used in the home, including paint, varnish, paint thinner, oven cleaners, batteries, and yard and garden chemicals. Consumers should be careful to purchase only what is needed and check whether local sanitation services provide disposal and recycling. Invest in a charger and switch to rechargeable batteries.
Properly Dispose of Used Oil and Leftover Paint: Do not pour oil onto the ground or down sewer systems. Check with the local sanitation service for collection and recycling of unwanted paint. Take used automotive oil to a service station or recycling center.
Properly Dispose of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Equipment: Contact the local trash pickup service to find out about proper disposal of this equipment. Federal law prohibits the release of refrigerant during the disposal of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.
Operate Wood Stoves and Fireplaces Sparingly: Operate a wood stove only when necessary and always according to the manufacturer's recommendations to improve burning efficiency. Burn only dry well-seasoned, stacked and covered wood. Stored wood loses about 5 percent of its energy for heat content per year, so wood should not be stored for too long.
Influence Local Business
Consumers can influence air pollution from local businesses by requesting processes that are less polluting. Businesses respond to consumer requests when they can and will often provide services that customers request. Use your purchasing power to patronize businesses that prevent pollution.
Request Non-Hazardous Service Station Practices: Check to make sure that your service station uses non-hazardous solvents, recycles antifreeze and refrigerant, and reuses or recycles used oil.
Patronize Body Shops that Reduce Emissions and Waste: Make sure the body shop you take your car to uses an enclosed, ventilated, filtered spray booth, low-VOC coatings, re-mixes and reuses waste coatings, and recycles thinner.
Request Minimal Solvent in Dry Cleaning: Make sure your dry cleaner uses a machine that does not vent solvents into the atmosphere.
Request Water or Soy-Based Printing Inks: Make sure your printer offers non-hazardous ink alternatives such as water or soy-based inks to help cut down on VOC emissions. Request these inks be used on printing jobs for your organization or business.
Issues and Recommendations for Two-Cycle Engines: Two-stroke engines are used in lawn mowers, leaf blowers, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and personal watercraft. These two-stroke engines, by current design, emit 20 to 33 percent of their fuel unburned. Almost all the engine lubrication oil is emitted unburned, usually seen as smoke. These engines are desirable in certain applications because they are less expensive than four-stroke engines and provide a high power-to-weight ratio, but they have a large impact on air quality. Two-stroke engines are calibrated to run rich for smooth engine response, resulting in high emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbon (HC). For example, data from a gasoline-powered lawn mower indicate it can emit as much in one hour of operation as produced by an average automobile during 3,000 miles of travel.
At this time, EPA does not yet regulate these engines, but announced in January 1999 a proposal to regulate them in the near future.
Consider Alternatives to Gasoline Engines and Conventional Petroleum Products: Use a manual or electric-powered tool. If a gasoline engine must be used, consider using ethanol-blend fuel and low-emission synthetic lube oil to minimize emissions.
Make Your Snow Machine More Environmentally Friendly:
- use proper jets, keep engines tuned and clutches adjusted properly for the elevation where machines operate;
- use oxygenated fuels such as 10 percent ethanol blend to reduce pollution;
- use synthetic low particulate lube oils to reduce particulate and smoke; and
- use synthetic biodegradable lube oils to reduce potential water pollution.
Check with your dealers, outfitters, and/or retailers for availability of these and similar reduced-emission products.
