Toronto looking to ban gas-powered leaf blowers to reduce noise and air pollution
Toronto looking to ban gas-powered leaf blowers to reduce noise and air pollution
Oh yes please.. please, please do it. I have some choice words about leaf blowing in general but this will be a marked improvement all else being equal.
I really find anybody using even a gas lawnmower pretty obnoxious. If you are cutting an acre of land it is fine. If you are an old person I get the not changing.
What if you're a contractor?
Then you use a set of battery-powered tools that all run off of the same battery.
Making the switch makes the job much easier. Not needing to worry about needing access to power or venting CO2 when working in enclosed space in winter is game-changing.With a system like Dewalt, you can basically do anything you want using only batteries. You can run lawnmowers, table saws, drills, air nailers, leaf blowers, chain saws, vacuums, mitre saws, hammer drills, hedge trimmers, grinders, and basically anything you need for most jobs off of the same battery.
I think a lot of people are resistant to moving away from gas mowers because the extension cord is annoying as hell and battery powered ones are still too expensive.
Gas power is also way more powerful. Electric ones hang up on deep grass. More expensive, less power and I already have a gas one.
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We recently outlawed them in my city. Didn't do anything. Everyone still uses them and no one enforces the ban. City next to us banned them years ago and I had no idea, same thing happened there. Continued use and no enforcement.
It is still worth outlawing their use and their sale. As sales are outlawed in enough places, people will gradually phase them out.
Yes I'd like them gone. My city didn't ban sales unfortunately.
Enforcement is hard and expensive. I'd bet it's a question of weighing the cost-benefit of pouring resources into enforcement vs letting them peter-out and diminish over time.
Assuming a small city, it's hard to accomplish. But Toronto has the ability to influence major retailers. So it could be the start of the gas powered ones disappearing from shelves nationally.
I really hope this goes through. Electric ones are much easier to deal with..
You know whats really fucking incredible is that this was ever considered a reasonable option
You mean... bend over and... pick up the leaves like I did when I was a kid???? Who has time for that. Blow that shit into the neighbor's yard.. Done.
Please do. They’re so fucking loud
Just ban blowers outright, makes no sense when leafs get blown from one property to another, and then back again.
As the guy in the article mentioned, If this were the case I would hope to see and exception for contractors/business. Electric has come a long way, but still pales in comparison to a gas blower/trimmer.
As for pollution, while it's important to tackle all angles of a problem. There are definitely bigger fish to fry. Two stroke emissions might be "more harmful pound per pound" but there is a million times less of those pounds.
I don't live in Toronto, but is the sound pollution from two stroke engines really that bad? How does it compare to construction noise or traffic noise? There is no logical reason a two stroke engines should be running for longer than 20-30 mins at a time and that's stretching it.
I live in Toronto. They are loud. Traffic is usually isn't noticeable in my 22nd floor condo (unless it's those stupid tuned exhaust systems - which should be banned as well). But when the city or contractors pull out the gas leaf blowers, I hear them pretty clearly. I'm happy to have them gone to reduce the noise.
I agree from a pollution point of view there are bigger fish to fry (like ocean shipping and cruise ships).
Thanks for the information! I would never have guessed that tbh.
A bowl full of fried shrimp is still quite filling. It's really easy to go Electric leaf blowers (and lawn mowers etc). All these small emissions can add up substantially and is quite important when ever year counts.
Electric has come a long way, but still pales in comparison to a gas blower/trimmer.
I dunno man, my 82v battery-powered leaf blower does a damn good job.
I'm in Vancouver area. Our Condo maintenance is contracted out. they use gas weed trimmer and blowers, the commercial ones (maybe modified) are as loud as straight pipe harley. it is deafening when they are here all day, and the smoke comes in to the unit smelling like raw gas. it's bad. And apparently running one of those for an hour is more emissions than 10s of cars doing lots of commutes; because they don't have emissions systems like vehicles.
So when are loud noises going to be a punishable offense?