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Portland's gas-powered leaf blower ban goes into effect
- collinmcnulty 10mo agoI would gladly be part of a neighborhood battery swap pool if it would help get rid of the near constant running of gas powered lawn equipment every morning. The sound and pollution are such a menace.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- lm28469 10mo agoI've witness two municipal employees using gas powered blowers on bushes for like an hour right in front of my building. It's completely useless because no one ever goes in the bushes (duh), and it's depleting the ground from nutrients for no reasons. We really have to stop acting like gas is free and unlimited, burning fossil fuels used for legitimate reasons is bad enough, but burning them for such dumb tasks is an insult to nature.
- sidewndr46 10mo agoI don't find gas leaf blowers exceptionally annoying. They aren't really anymore annoying that anything else going on in my area. It's what leaf blowers are used for that bother me. I see people just using them to blow leaves either into the street or into neighbors yards. What is the utility in this? Do they think leaves disappear?
- sarchertech 10mo agoThey’re much louder than other common lawn equipment. People also tend to use them more frequently. Most of my neighbors will only run a lawnmower once a week or every 2 weeks. But they’ll be out there every day with a leaf blower during parts of the year.
- sidewndr46 10mo agoAgreed, but I'm comparing them to the other stuff that is always going on. During the week you can always hear: roofing nailguns, wood chipper, backup beeper, & someone playing music.
- sarchertech 10mo agoThat depends on where you’re at. I live in a neighborhood with 2-5 acre lots. I can’t hear any of those things unless my immediate neighbors are doing them, which they rarely are. I can hear leaf blowers constantly though because you can hear them in a quarter mile radius. Also local ordinances in most places ban loud noises without a permit. But lawn maintenance equipment is a specific exception.
- throwway120385 10mo agoThe street sweeper sweeps all.
- sidewndr46 10mo agoI've owned the property I've been referring to for over 6 years. Never seen a street sweeper. Leaves in the street from my neighbors yards are about 1 foot deep at the curb
- rascul 10mo agoSome municipalities have leaf pickup service if you pile up the leaves on the side of the street.
- sidewndr46 10mo agoMine requires them to be in paper bags or in buckets
- potato3732842 10mo agoThose bushes they're fluffing up likely only exist because in order to get the stormwater calculations to code they had to put them there for absorption for rain runoff (i.e. part of a SWPP). Or meet some stupid municipal requirement that precludes too much drab solid frontage on a building. You paid for half a dozen people to spend a bit of labor on what would have 50yr ago been a simple "sidewalk for walking go here, grass everywhere else" exercise. And then every week you get to pay again to be annoyed by them maintaining it (in perpetuity, as they are required to by law, assuming it's part of a SWPP).
- teeray 10mo agoI couldn’t fathom running lawn equipment in the morning. If I try to mow in the morning my clippings are just globs of wet spinach thanks to all the dew. I get much better performance out of the equipment if I wait until the afternoon once everything has had a chance to dry out.
- olyjohn 10mo agoGood luck, electric leaf blowers are not quiet at all.
- oooyay 10mo agoI actually didn't know this was coming up and just bought an electric. They all kind of suck except for the Ego and the Ego is like $250. Portland has gotten quite a bit more expensive. We've begun rejecting taxes, which as the self-selected second highest taxed city in the nation is new. Our economy has struggled to return post-COVID lockdowns. There's a lot more I could say but people are really feeling the economic squeeze. I doubt this will help, but is pretty minor when you think about housing, electricity, gas, and water costs that continue to rise as wages go down in the city. I call this place the city of a thousand cuts, there's a lot to like, but there's a lot that hurts too.
- dabeeeenster 10mo agoOh no, I cant annoy everyone in a 500m radius for 20 minutes once a week by blowing all the leaves that have fallen into my garden into my neighbours garden. Did I get it right?
- oooyay 10mo agoMy point was you can still buy the gas ones in the store and they're substantially cheaper than the Ego I bought. I live in East Portland, which is why I was talking about cost. I wish the kind of suburban problems you're describing are what we deal with.
- jermberj 10mo agoHowdy, fellow east Portlander, you might be interested in this: https://www.eptl.toollibrarian.net/TL/ourtools.php https://www.eptl.toollibrarian.net/TL/ourtools.php. They have 5 electric leaf blowers available right now. You mentioned you already bought one, but perhaps you could share this info with some of your friends or neighbors to save them the cost. :)
- oooyay 10mo agoHello! We do use the EPTL :) that did remind me to donate my old plugin blower though thank you. I will note that EPTL only has plugin blowers and there are good reasons I went with a more mobile blower.
- kjkjadksj 10mo agoThis ban has been around for about 20 years in LA and is not enforced at all, no blowing 500ft of a residence. Recently they banned sales of gas blowers. Everyone’s gardener uses a gas leafblower still because that is what gets the job done in their time constraint.
- bluGill 10mo agoBattery operated leaf blowers are just as good - but few people are willing to try them. I don't know why. Batteries are more expensive up front, but they pay off long term.
- jjav 10mo agoParticularly for a contractor who uses it all day with no opportunity to recharge, they would need enough batteries to last all day. Not cheap at all.
- bluGill 10mo agoUpfront not cheap, but long term they are not paying for gas and so it pays for itself. (a contractor will rig a dozen chargers onto the trailer and plug that in when they get home each night)
- kjkjadksj 10mo agoI doubt they are as serviceable as the stihl equipment they’ve been used to working with for years now. There is a reason why commercial stihl equipment in particular is practically standard issue among landscapers.
- bluGill 10mo agoStihl makes battery operated equipment, including backpacks that can go all day. For the largest chainsaws gas is more powerful, but for most uses electric is just as powerful.
- jo-m 10mo agoIn Sep 2025, voters in Zürich, Switzerland, approved a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers as well. Additionally, even electrical ones can only be used October-December. Source: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-democracy/zurich-voters-ban-petrol-powered-leaf-blowers/90082192 https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-democracy/zurich-voters-b...
- 1970-01-01 10mo agoBecause it's too dangerous for ordinary citizens to use gas power? Context: https://www.oregon.gov/osfm/pages/self-serve-fueling.aspx https://www.oregon.gov/osfm/pages/self-serve-fueling.aspx
- mothballed 10mo agoThat's a jobs program, safety was just the thinly veiled excuse.
- jermberj 10mo agoBingo. Also, it's effectively dead. I live in Multnomah county and since that's gone into effect (in 2023), I have only ever pumped my own gas.
- phendrenad2 10mo agoGas-powered leaf blowers could be fine, but 99% of the time they're awful, cheap, horribly-maintained hunks of junk that emit horrible clouds of smoke that just floats at ground level for 15+ minutes. Next up ban non-electric cars in the city limits.
- Zigurd 10mo agoMany big Chinese cities banned gas motorcycles and scooters long ago. Taipei did not. You can smell the obvious difference. Electric buses make a big difference too.
- trgn 10mo agoafter not visiting for like a decade or so, being back in europe, the presence of electric cars in the city has improved quality of life enormously. closer to home, one neighbor bought a hybrid, the other an electric truck, and it is so much more calm and quiet.
- pfdietz 10mo agoReading the law strictly, a leaf blower powered by a gasoline electric generator would be allowed, if the generator rests on the ground. A gasoline leaf blower (or vacuum) that you ride instead of carry would also be allowed.
- kridsdale1 10mo agoThat would at least be much more efficient.
- potato3732842 10mo ago>A gasoline leaf blower (or vacuum) that you ride instead of carry would also be allowed. That's likely an intentional exception because they don't wan't to have to field calls from every busybody who sees the someone riding a bagger equipped mower around in the fall (which serves both the purpose of a final mowing and picking up all the leaves)
- pfdietz 10mo ago"Walk behind" leaf blowers too. These can be had for as little as $400.
- johnebgd 10mo agoI bought a corded electric snow blower this year for my driveway. My neighbor has a gas powered one. I sold mine after two uses because it was so ineffective it mostly just clogged. It is a highly rated unit on Amazon. My neighbor has used his for years. I hope this kind of environmentalism never comes for winter gear. At least not until we have fuel cell technology that far exceeds what batteries can offer.
- BenjiWiebe 10mo agoThere's good battery powered stuff out there, and there's a lot of bad battery powered stuff out there. Hopefully the good gets more common and the bad gets less common. I think batteries are good enough for your needs, just that there's too much junk on the market.
- mynameajeff 10mo agoYeah outside of areas with very light precipitation a pretty hefty snowblower is definitely required. In my experience the weaker models are enough of a waste of energy to where I questioned if I'd save effort just hand shoveling. Everyone I know with a nice gas powered one has had the same one for years and can clear out the entire block with relative ease.
- andy99 10mo agoI don’t think it’s environmentalism, I think that’s unfortunate just the pretense because it gets traction. At least what I’ve found, now with more people working from home, there is more attention paid to intolerably noisy stuff that goes on when we used to be at work. I lived near a private school with a big grounds that had these idiots come and rev their leaf blowers for days every fall and spring, and it was basically impossible for me to work. I don’t especially care about the environmental impact and am sort of angry that people use the environment as a pretence when there are certainly more effective ways to be environmentally friendly. But the noise is intolerable, generally very supportive of the bans, though I think it should be about blanket norms on what noise levels are allowed and not about specific technologies.
- 10mo ago
- noodlesUK 10mo agoWhilst I seriously doubt that this will be regularly or universally enforced, I think that gas powered gardening and construction equipment is incredibly loud and annoying, and that especially in built-up areas it's not really acceptable where good alternatives exist. Noise pollution is usually very avoidable, and it can be quite disruptive and sometimes damaging to health. Further, where I live (in the UK), there needs to be a serious reckoning about modified cars and road noise. At least 5-10x daily people drive through the city centre near my home with cars modified with unbelievably loud pop and bang ECU tunes and exhaust noise (close to as loud as gunfire). This kind of deliberate noise pollution is exceptionally antisocial behaviour and should not be tolerated by society.
- throwway120385 10mo agoWe have the same problem where I live in the US. When I get some free time I'm going to lobby our state congress to have the sale of them banned, because it's the only way to get people to stop installing them. There is a law against driving them but it's impossible to enforce because there's no means of measuring the sound and associating it with the vehicle quickly enough to enforce it. I'd love to have an ALPR system that localizes the noise and snaps a picture of the plate and vehicle and sends them a ticket in the mail.
- pc86 10mo agoNoise enforcement is a normal thing in areas that want to enforce it. It happens exactly the same way speed enforcement happens, the officer has a device that measures it and can present that information in court if the other party disputes it. The problem for both noise and speed enforcement is entirely a problem of will. Some jurisdictions simply don't care, or just do targeted enforcement to drive revenue but not actually change driving habits. Do any driving around the country and you'll see areas where people regularly drive 20mph over the speed limit and areas where people barely go 5 over.
- pbmonster 10mo agoGerman police have a what amounts to a dyno mounted on a truck bed, and they pull over suspicious cars and sound check them while an officer goes through the gears on the dyno. Failing that test is expensive, and you don't see your car again for a few weeks. They revoke your permission to operate the vehicle on public roads, so in addition to the fine, you face fees (towing, storage of car in evidence locker, towing your car to a shop after getting it back in order to make it street legal, then redoing the road-worthiness certification).
- mynameajeff 10mo agoMy last apartment had the basic unending sound of a leafblower from Spring to late Fall, nearly every morning, unending. Never once did I find myself thinking "wow I sure do hate sight of fall leaves" or "this grass really needs the mm of grass every meter removed", yet they were paid to come multiple times a week year round and blow things around for hours on end. Felt like such a waste in an otherwise neglected apartment complex as far as maintenance. I get the use of leafblowers for some. I lived in the deep woods and we'd have to clear a pretty large swath of area every fall to not swim through shin-deep leaves for half the year, but if you already are in an area with light enough tree density to grow nice grass I just personally don't understand the utility of some 1000CFM gas leafblower. I got my parents a relatively cheap electric leafblower and it's been excellent for clearing their driveway and paths. It's definitely a more personal gripe, but those obnoxious droning leafblowers are one of the worst sources of noise pollution in suburban areas by a large gap.
- owenthejumper 10mo agoMy town (East Coast) did this early in the year. Nobody blinked, everyone moved to electric.
- black_13 10mo ago[dead]
- yabones 10mo agoThis is a good thing. It might inconvenience some old suburban men that have no hobbies other than making their lawn look like astroturf, but those of us that breathe air regularly should be asking for this in their own jurisdiction. Unlike your car, a four-stroke engine with a catalytic converter, a leaf blower is a two-stroke that burns oil by design. The amount of particulate emissions is hard to understate, and the amount of NOx these belch out is staggering. Asthma, cancer, heart disease, COPD, all are on the table with this type of system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-stroke_engine#Emissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-stroke_engine#Emissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOx#Health_and_environment_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOx#Health_and_environment_eff...
- throwway120385 10mo agoMost of them are four-stroke now. They just don't have any muffler on them.
- kube-system 10mo agoI'm not sure where you are located, but that is not the case in the majority of the US. In most of the US they are overwhelmingly 2-stroke. Just checked a couple local hardware store websites too to make sure I wasn't crazy... there aren't any 4-strokes leaf blowers available in-store, they're all 2-stroke.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- mothballed 10mo agoA lot of 4-stroke don't have much emissions controls either although it does burn cleaner than a two stroke. If you buy heavy equipment like excavator or tractor under 25hp you can get it with no emissions controls which is highly sought after because they don't break down as often.
- imglorp 10mo agoSuburban homeowners can use electric blowers. They're good enough now and not silent but way quieter and non-emitting. If you get the mower and trimmer and chainsaw, etc in the same system, they all share batteries. It's SO NICE not having to repair, refuel, tune, and tolerate small engines. These tools probably aren't ready for professional landscapers yet but they're almost there.
- GavinNewsom 10mo ago[flagged]
- burnt-resistor 10mo agoIt's a quality-of-life issue (noise pollution), more than anything. I recall that Palo Alto had this 10-15 years ago and it was somewhat enforced. Although I did see someone put a Honda gas generator on a furniture dolly connected to an electric blower with a 50 or 100 foot extension cord to blow their yard.
- meindnoch 10mo agoWe can make (more or less) silent gas engines for cars. Why can't we make the same for equipment?
- pc86 10mo agoThe top two reasons are increased cost and increased weight. Far, far down the list is slightly decreased reliability.
- rickypp 10mo agoThe muffler in your car weighs a fair bit more than an entire leaf blower. The noise reduction is also aided by enclosing the engine in a compartment with sound deadening, and having 15ft of exhaust piping (and a resonator, and usually multiple catalytic converters). It just can't be done effectively for small engine tools that you have to physically carry around. 2 stroke engines are even worse (chainsaws, weed wackers) because the exhaust has to be tuned for resonance at specific frequencies in order for the engine to make power. As an owner of some land and many pieces of small engine equipment, I will say that the difference between _no muffler_ and the little mufflers they typically have is still substantial.
- bluGill 10mo agoWe can, but size and weight are important for hand held equipment and so we sacrifice noise and pollution to meet the other requirements.
- TheAtomic 10mo agoPlease god let this catch on everywhere
- analogpixel 10mo agoNext up ban every car that has modified their exhaust to sound like a leaf blower.
- cramcgrab 10mo agoPortland is the best! Now if they can ban gas cars that would be great!
- faidit 10mo agoGood. I don't mind the noise since it happens during daytime. Put on headphones and lock in or something. But it's impossible to get good air quality during the day with them running nearby constantly. Always smelling the gas and thinking about the CO content and other toxins you're inhaling. Thus having to shut the windows and watch your CO2 levels rise, knowing it's degrading your mental acuity while you're trying to code..
- josefritzishere 10mo agoDoes no one else just mow the leaves?
- gwbas1c 10mo agoI bought my corded electric leaf blower about 10 years ago, before battery leaf blowers were reasonably priced and light enough to hold. The irony: I often run my corded electric leaf blower off of my portable generator just so I can check to make sure the darn thing runs.
- bob1029 10mo agoI live with a national forest literally in my back yard. I've got to deal with more leaves than most people can imagine. I don't own a leaf blower. I use a rake (with my human hands) to get the leaves into the lawn and I'll mulch em down into bits about once a month with a mower. After mulching down the monster pile I'll run the irrigation system to get the microbial activity going. Things break down fast if you can keep em small and wet. Blowing the leaves off the lawn or collecting them for pickup is crazy to me. This stuff is free fertilizer. The HOA quants who need their lawns immaculate 24/7/365 are neurotic freaks and no law is going to stop them from finding some new way to be obnoxious to those around them. You may one day find yourself wishing for the return of the leaf blower noise if you aren't careful with rules like this.
- rimunroe 10mo agoI'm in Massachusetts and have been doing the same thing with our lawn in the five years since becoming a homeowner. We rake leaves away from the house a few times in the fall to make our house less attractive to mice and then run the mower around to mulch those piles and whatever else is in the yard. I let the leaves sit where the mower drops them, although I occasionally put the hopper on the mower and collect a few to throw into garden beds to help our plants overwinter. A lot of the trees around our property are oaks, which have leaves which take a while to break down, but when they're cut into tiny bits they seem to go away quickly enough. Overall it's worked quite well. It's low effort and is far less disruptive than blowing leaves around, especially with an electric mower.
- cmxch 10mo ago[flagged]
- BigTTYGothGF 10mo agoWhy would you want to? Sounds like a bunch of work.
- cmxch 10mo agoThe leaves get done faster because the right tool doesn’t have to be charged every 5-10 minutes. Factor the penalty cost as a matter of maintenance, maybe even find ways to defray it to financial background noise.
- BigTTYGothGF 10mo agoI just let my leaves sit on the lawn most of the year before having them raked into a big pile. It's better for everybody.