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I’m from europe and i have no idea what a leaf blower is. Our family didn’t have one nor did any family I know of. My family always had a garden with trees, and
by krisoft 5y ago
I’m from europe and i have no idea what a leaf blower is. Our family didn’t have one nor did any family I know of. My family always had a garden with trees, and it was often my chore as a kid to rake the leaves together. Is the leaf blower an alternative to that?
Just asking because I want to understand how prevealent this form of polution is where you live.
- namdnay 5y agoDepends where you are in Europe. In France they’re commonly used by town employees to blow stuff off roads. I wish they’d just use brooms
- luckylion 5y agoLeaf blowers are much more efficient though. They're not just using them because they're loud and polluting, they're using them despite those attributes, because they easily quadruple a person's effectiveness with regards to moving large amounts of leaves on a flat surface.
- namdnay 5y agoIf you’re on gravel or sand I agree, leaf blowers are way better. But honestly on Asphalt they seem less effective than a big wide broom.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoYes and leaf blowers were not a common sight in America until the late 80s. How did we get through life before then?
- luckylion 5y agoLess efficiently. You can get by without leaf blowers, you just need more people and it takes longer. You can get by without computers, you just need more people and it takes longer. You can get by without machines, you just need more people and it takes longer. We tend to favor things that are more efficient, and it's hard to go back, because the citizenry won't be happy if you tell them your plans of quadrupling the work force and raising taxes accordingly.
- daddylongstroke 5y agoLess machines, less maintenance, less pollution, less taxes.
- breuleux 5y agoI'd be OK with just leaving the leaves on the ground, to be honest.
- evan_ 5y agoThey start to decompose and get slippery pretty quickly. It’s a safety concern.
- kiba 5y agoYes, it blows leaves. It's also quite obnoxiously loud, so there's noise pollution as well.
- 0800LUCAS 5y ago> I’m from europe and i have no idea what a leaf blower is They love the stuff in Ireland. I have no idea why people use it. It doesn't do much better of a job than a rake would. It's completely stupid
- elijaht 5y ago> It doesn't do much better of a job than a rake would That's disingenuous. Raking the yard is a half-day chore for me, that's fairly physically strenuous. Using a leafblower takes like an hour and is really easy- you can stand and point. A leafblower is a non-zero QoL improvement if you have to deal with leaves
- hkt 5y agoReal question: why rake the yard? The road I understand, but what's wrong with just letting the leaves decompose and enrich the soil?
- will4274 5y agoLeaves kill the grass. You want the grass to get light through the fall.
- eulgro 5y agoJust mow the leaves once or twice. Grass gets the light, and the leaves get decomposed more easily.
- anthonypasq 5y agook? how is that an environmentally better option than using a leaf blower?
- basisword 5y agoIt sounds like you have a massive yard. I can’t imagine having to spend more than 20mins raking a standard garden.
- ant6n 5y agoA leaf blower is how you move in the air when flying hooked up to a bunch of balloons: https://readingasawriterhome.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/russell-on-the-leafblower-e1547360317374.jpg https://readingasawriterhome.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/rus...
- version_five 5y agoI've lived in a few different places, and mostly really only encountered leaf blowers either for some larger scale work like cleaning up leaves on a university campus, or for cleaning debris from parking lots. I've recently moved to an area with single family or attached homes on small lots, and inexplicably, everyone has a leaf blower. Most houses have a driveway and parking area, and about 10 square feet of lawn, but for some reason all the guys are out blowing leaves around... I'm supposing there must be pockets where culturally that's what people do, I certainly don't get it
- Cederfjard 5y agoI’m also ”from Europe”, and I’ve seen leaf blowers used by both private individuals and local government for the last 15 years at least. Did I see it to the extent that it was ”_vastly_ worse than cars” in terms of pollution? No, not even close. But it’s been there.