Noisy, polluting, air bazookas, begone!

[rebeccmeister]

This post brought to you by #heyyoukidsgetoffmylawn

One of the things that tormented my father in his dying days was the sound of two-stroke engine leaf blowers operated by yard maintenance crews in the neighborhood.

I think about that every time I hear them, like right now, sitting in the basement of my parents' house.

This did prompt me to look up their status in Seattle, where I learned they're getting phased out. Not nearly fast enough for me!

Yesterday when I stepped outside the neighborhood credit union to head home, there were two people using them to blow a small handful of leaves down the sidewalk towards me. The thing is, gas-powered leaf blowers also kick up all of the other small particulate pollution that accumulates on sidewalks. Think: dried dog shit, and all the tire dust particles from passing cars. Yum!

It's all so much worse than almost accidentally drinking a slug!

This is yet another arena where western states are generally taking action sooner than eastern states. I wouldn't even know where to start with this, in Albany.

https://quietcleanalliance.org/

https://reasonstobecheerful.world/make-america-rake-again-leaf-blower-bans/

Comments

[twoeleven]

I wouldn't even know where to start with this, in Albany.

Try the legislature. :)

Meet with your reps. Yes, in person. Tell them what you want. Bring model legislation with you; existing laws are fine, and probably better.

Email will be noted by their staffers. Since you're not asking for something they can immediately fix, like a busted streetlight, they're not gonna pass it on to the boss. You might be able to schedule a call, but given how close you are, just meet with them.

Poke around the legislature's web site. See who's sponsored environmental legislature. Meet with them too.

Yes, this is a lot of work, as is the follow-up work. It's how laws get made. BT, DT, got the laws changed. (More like assisted getting the laws changed, since there were already legislators working on the thing I wanted, but still.)

[rebeccmeister]

Some of the links above have different suggestions for tackling this particular issue. After poking around, I was pleased to see that there are some municipalities in NY that are working on this or that have already passed ordinances.

[twoeleven]

You said you didn't know where to start, so...

[ranunculus]

I'd be lost without a gas powered appliances. Blowing leaves off a mile of dirt road so they don't block the gutter ditches would be a several day chore with a rake. It takes half a day with a gas blower, and it needs to take 1/2 day as that cleanup is done as a big storm moves in. Cleaning slowly would just allow piles of leaves to blow back into the ditch. Batteries wouldn't even begin to touch the job. Same with the weed whacker. Same with the chainsaws... Battery tools work great if you have a few, small places to clean/trim, but for real ranch work they are useless. So while I support laws that will reduce the noise the same law needs to acknowledge that some jobs cannot be done with low powered tools.

[twoeleven]

It really does seem to be a problem just with leaf blowers. There's people around here who have chainsaws and gas weed whackers, and neither one is as loud or annoying. Nor is either used with the same frequency or duration as leaf blowers are.

Otherwise, yeah, that sounds like another typical (sub)urban vs rural problem. Blanket bans on selling gas leaf blowers are easy to legislate and easy to enforce. Bans on use are harder to enforce, since the police are unlikely to show up in a timely way for such a minor problem.

To be honest, I'd have thought you'd use something attached to the power take off of a compact tractor for clearing your ditches and other large jobs. But I don't have much of a sense of the size or ruggedness of your ranch. It seems hilly from your pictures, though.

[ranunculus]

There is no tractor attachment that I know of that will blow out the ditches. I can and do use a scraper blade to actually shape and grade the road, but leaves and grass foul the blade and make it impossible to use without stopping every 50 feet to clear out the plant material. When it rains leaves back up the ditches and route the water out onto the road where it gouges out the road base. The first big storm of the year usually arrives just as the tree leaves are falling fast. So timing is everything. If leaves are left in the ditch they get wet and soggy and HEAVY. Then they have to be raked out of the ditch and up over the road to the edge. So there is no replacement for a good, really strong leaf blower. From what I have seen no battery leaf blower even comes close, and of course the idea of a plug in blower is beyond absurd. Then I'd have to run a gas generator to power my electric blower...

[twoeleven]

There is no tractor attachment that I know of that will blow out the ditches.

Aha! I didn't know that. The only tractors I've seen in use¹ are very large ones, and they seem to have a huge variety of attachments.

1: On relatives' farms. I've seen plenty while driving by, of course, but I don't get to talk to those farmers.

[ranunculus]

I have seen attachments or pull behind units that blow chemicals out and up into grapes or trees. I've seen mowers that can mow grass and brush off the side of a road, the biggest of which might be able to chip and blow the chips in some direction. But I've never seen an attachment that has a mobile hose that will blow out a ditch. Doesn't mean there isn't one, I just don't know of it and probably couldn't afford it!
My road has a few flat bits (hard because water doesn't want to drain away and therefore it creates potholes); extra steep bits (hard because you have to slow the water down or it erodes the ditch bottom) and medium areas with deep ditches that are hard because the clay is so close to the surface that grading is a game of trying to keep the scraper in the gravel, not the clay underneath. There are lots of curves and multiple culverts to keep clear. There are hillsides where culverts exit and water has to be dispersed lest it erode away the roadbed. Just all kinds of fun!!

[rebeccmeister]

My municipality has a golf cart size utility vehicle with an enormous blower hose on it. I've never been in a place to take a photo of it, and I agree that I don't think they're generally affordable outside of industrial situations.

At that point, why not just vacuum instead of blowing, is what I want to know. (not you, my city).

It's kind of a shame we didn't know each other when I was living in Texas trying to keep a huge yard and ditch mowed with Mr. Pushy the push mower. I should have bought a scythe back then! Instead I just complained a lot.

[ranunculus]

That makes me think that blowers might be much more common in places that have snow. Hmmm.
Mr Pushy! Love it. I've used a scythe just enough to know that I suck at it. I bet someone who is skilled is a joy to watch. Mom used to use a sickle in certain areas. I still have an old one of hers.

[rebeccmeister]

I think from one of the articles I found, it sounds like there might be *one* electric blower model that comes *somewhat* close to matching the power of two-stroke gas ones...enough to at least convince landscaping crews to make the switch (especially factoring in the cost savings, which start to accumulate after about 10 months).

But I can definitely appreciate your particular use case. And in any case, you're further away from any neighbors who might be annoyed by the extra noise.

[ranunculus]

I looked at that article. Yes, the top of the line Stihl might come close. They claim it will pay for itself in 10 months - but. Did they include the price, including eco-price, of the battery manufacture and disposal? Cost of replacement sets of batteries? Anyone who has had a battery driven drill knows that batteries don't live forever, and even the new, more powerful ones wear out after a certain number of charges OR a certain time.
In my case I own a 25 year old Stihl blower that was top of the line. It works great partly because I use it once a year for a short time. The amount I would pay for batteries per use would be astronomical. So would the eco-cost.
The only complaint I've ever had from a neighbor was about stirring up dust, not the noise!

[twoeleven]

Sorry for the late reply on this one, but my hand was acting up and it's an interesting question...

Yes, the top of the line Stihl might come close. They claim it will pay for itself in 10 months - but. Did they include the price, including eco-price, of the battery manufacture and disposal? Cost of replacement sets of batteries?

Lemme break that down...

I'd ask Stihl about their break-even cost analysis. They can probably tell you what assumptions they made to come up with it. I'd guess relatively heavy use.

As to "eco-prices", it's not just the "cost" of their machine and its batteries, but the "cost" relative to running the messy and inefficient 2-stroke blower. Figuring it out exactly would be challenging, but a BOTEC done around hand-waved carbon dioxide emissions shouldn't be too bad.

As far as I can tell, lithium batteries are required to be recycled in California, so the disposal "cost" is relatively low. I'm not sure what happens to broken machines like the 2-stroke blower, though I'd expect a recycler would pay you for the steel and/or aluminum in the engine.

[ranunculus]

Most of my point is that a set of batteries for said Stihl machine would last ~ 3 to 4 years. In that time I would actually use the machine for a maximum of 3 or 4 weeks, probably much more like less than 2 weeks. That math doesn't work for me.

[asakiyume]

Right: in situations like yours, they make sense. But on people's .3 acre patches of lawn? Whyyyyy?

[twoeleven]

I can only assume they're lazy. My neighbors use gas mowers on their postage-stamp lawns, and then blow the clippings around for good measure.

[ranunculus]

I imagine a few people are disabled enough to need a ride on, power mower for a small yard, but in essence the rest of them have been sold a fairy tale; that they can and should have the biggest and baddest mower ever and it will do no harm.

[twoeleven]

Heh. There is one guy who has a riding mower for his lawn, which is a bit larger than mine. All I can say about his hypothetical handicap is that it doesn't stop him from doing other yard work. :)

The other gas mowers are just regular walk-behind ones, though I think some are self-propelled.

[ranunculus]

I tried, once, to use a non-motorized mower on my lawn here on the Ranch. The lawn here is steeply sloped and I couldn't manage the push mower on it. For several decades I thought I had to have a lawn for fire safety, but recently found out that is not true. So the lawn is no more, much to my relief. I am plotting to turn part of it into more veg garden.

[ranunculus]

Oh, I'm not arguing that small home gardens should use a big gas blower. I think battery blowers, string trimmers and so on are ideal there. But here we would, and have, burnt up battery tools by asking them to do far heavier work than they are designed for.

[asakiyume]

I've hated them since forever. There is EVERYthing wrong with them and nothing good about them.