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Running a gas-powered leaf blower for an hour emits as much pollution as driving from Los Angeles to Denver.<\/span>Sarah Dussault\/MediaNews Group\/\/Getty via Grist<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This story was originally published by<\/em>\u00a0Grist<\/a> and is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk<\/a>\u00a0collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n The push to <\/span>ban gas-powered leaf blowers has gained an unlikely figurehead: Cate Blanchett, the Australian actress. \u201cLeaf blowers need to be eradicated from the face of the Earth,\u201d she said in\u00a0an interview<\/a>\u00a0in March. Her complaints have\u00a0gone viral on TikTok and other social media platforms<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a metaphor for what\u2019s wrong with us as a species,\u201d Blanchett said. \u201cWe blow shit from one side of our lawn to the other side, and then the wind is just going to blow it back!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Her complaints about leaf blowers\u2014equal parts entertaining and earnest\u2014stretch back\u00a0nearly 20 years<\/a>, and now the mood has caught up with her. Today, more than 200 local governments in the U.S. have\u00a0restricted gas-powered lawn equipment or provided incentives<\/a>\u00a0to switch to quieter, less-polluting electric tools. The first bans\u00a0date back to the 1970s<\/a>, but the trend picked up after the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, when newly homebound workers discovered just how inescapable the whine of their neighbor\u2019s leaf blower can be.<\/p>\n \u201cWith every year that passes, more and more communities across the country are taking action to address the shocking amount of pollution and noise from gas lawn equipment,\u201d said Kirsten Schatz, clean air advocate at the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, called CoPIRG.<\/p>\n Gas-powered leaf blowers aren\u2019t just annoying; they\u2019re bad for public health. Closing the windows can\u2019t shut out their low-frequency roar, which can be louder than the World Health Organization\u2019s recommended limit of 55 decibels\u00a0up to 800 feet away<\/a>. The unwanted sound can\u00a0lead to high levels of stress<\/a>, along with disturbing people\u2019s sleep and potentially damaging hearing over time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leaf blowers\u2019 two-stroke engines also churn out\u00a0a noxious blend of exhaust<\/a>: fine particulate matter,\u00a0smog-forming gases<\/a>, and\u00a0cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and formaldehyde<\/a>. By\u00a0one estimate<\/a>, running a gas-powered leaf blower for an hour emits as much smog-forming pollution as driving a car from Los Angeles to Denver.<\/p>\n One partial solution: Homeowners could accept a scattering of leaves, instead of demanding a perfectly manicured lawn. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n And while lawn and garden equipment is only a small slice of global carbon emissions, leaf blowers and other gas-powered tools \u201cpack a big punch for the amount that they create based on the size of their engines,\u201d said Dan Mabe, the founder of the American Green Zone Alliance, a group that works with cities and landscapers to shift to electric equipment. In 2020, fossil-fueled lawn and garden equipment in the United States released\u00a0more than 30 million tons of CO2<\/a>, more than the emissions of the city of Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cities and states across the country have taken different approaches to dealing with the problem. California\u2019s law banning the sale of new gas-powered blowers took effect last January, while cities like Portland and Baltimore are phasing out their use. Some places, like Wilmette, Illinois,\u00a0have enacted seasonal limits<\/a>, either permanently or until a full ban takes effect. Others, like Colorado, attempt to sweeten the deal of buying electric lawn care equipment, offering\u00a0a 30 percent discount<\/a>.<\/p>\n But implementing the bans is proving more challenging than many expected. Many communities are frustrated that the new rules are not being properly enforced, said Jamie Banks, the founder and president of Quiet Communities, a nonprofit working to reduce noise pollution.<\/p>\n Westport, Connecticut, fought for years to get\u00a0a seasonal restriction on gas-powered blowers<\/a>, only to find that local officials were not enforcing it, Banks said. Noise complaints are not exactly at the top of police officers\u2019 priority lists, and sometimes ordinances are written in a way that\u2019s hard to carry out\u2014police aren\u2019t usually expected to go around town taking noise readings, for example. Some communities are taking a deliberate approach to the problem: Banks pointed to a group of towns in the greater Chicago area, including Wilmette, that are\u00a0trying to create consistent policies across the region<\/a>\u00a0and working with the local police.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the matter that swapping gas blowers for ones powered by electricity isn\u2019t as straightforward as it sounds. While the costs are comparable for homeowners\u2014you can get electric blowers at a big-box store like Home Depot for around $200 or less, cheaper than most gas ones\u2014electric blowers are more expensive for commercial landscapers. They require multiple batteries for workers to get through the day. While a typical professional gas-powered blower runs for\u00a0$550<\/a>, a comparable electric one costs\u00a0$700<\/a>\u00a0and requires\u00a0thousands of dollars worth of batteries<\/a>. Landscapers also have to buy hundreds of dollars worth of charging equipment and find ways to charge safely on the go.\u00a0<\/p>\n Plus, it can be difficult to meet the standards customers expect with electric leaf blowers, which are less powerful than gas ones. \u201cIf you have customers that are demanding that you get everything off the ground, and you better do it quickly, and you\u2019d better not charge me too much money, it\u2019s really tough,\u201d Banks said.<\/p>\n Bans have already generated a political backlash in some Republican-led states.\u00a0Texas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Georgia<\/a>\u00a0have passed laws prohibiting local governments from regulating gas-powered leaf blowers. The Western States Petroleum Association, an oil industry group, launched\u00a0a Latino-focused messaging campaign in California<\/a>\u00a0that pushes back against laws to electrify vehicles and leaf blowers. But leaf blowers aren\u2019t just a culture-war lightning rod; in some places, they\u2019re leading to personal conflict. In Evanston, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago, several landscape workers\u00a0allege they\u2019ve been harassed<\/a>\u00a0by people reporting violations of the local ban.<\/p>\n The American Green Zone Alliance noted in a recent statement that \u201cheavy-handed bans on gas-powered leaf blowers can unintentionally create stress and hardship for workers who often labor for low wages, with limited benefits or control over their working conditions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Although there remain a lot of details to work out, the organization is still pushing lawn care to go electric. \u201cWe are trying to convince our industry, \u2018Look, we need to accelerate this,\u2019\u201d Mabe said.<\/p>\n The alliance is advocating for incentives that are sufficient to make the new equipment affordable for landscaping businesses operating on razor-thin margins. (In the end, lower fuel and maintenance costs for electric blowers can save companies money if the equipment is properly cared for, Mabe said.) Seasonal bans on gas-powered leaf blowers may be more feasible in some places than year-round ones, because they leave short windows for using the fossil-fueled devices in the spring and fall to take care of heavy cleanup jobs.<\/p>\n Another solution: Customers could loosen their expectations and accept a scattering of leaves, instead of demanding a perfectly manicured lawn. \u201cNow, if that aesthetic was more relaxed, that could help change things,\u201d Banks said. \u201cMaybe they wouldn\u2019t need to carry so many batteries.\u201d Leaving some leaves on the ground is, at least ecologically speaking, a good thing\u2014decaying leaves\u00a0fertilize the soil<\/a>\u00a0and form\u00a0a protective layer<\/a>\u00a0that provides shelter for snails, bees, and butterflies.<\/p>\n And of course, in many cases, a leaf blower isn\u2019t needed at all: You can do as Blanchett advises and take matters into your own hands\u00a0with a good-old fashioned rake<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n