Gas-powered leaf blowers facing a ban in Seattle

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Seattle City Councilmember Alex Pedersen has introduced new legislation that would phase out the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in Seattle.

The law would require the city government to transition from gas-powered to electric-powered leaf blowers by January 2025.

Seattle businesses and residents would need to make the transition by January 2027.

“Nearly everyone hates obnoxious, loud, gas-belching leaf blowers, so why do we allow them to continue damaging eardrums, spraying debris into faces, and polluting our city?” said Pedersen. “Other cities are banning or phasing out leaf blowers and it’s time to blow them out of Seattle, too.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/gas-powered-leaf-blowers-facing-a-ban-in-seattle/ar-AA10tD9a

There's one going off down the street from me right now. My gripe with leaf blowers is they're the lazy person's way of dealing with leaves.

Instead of raking them up and composting them or putting them in the yard waste bin to picked up; one just blows them out into the street or adjacent property.

[Jirel]

1. Those last 2 paragraphs are untrue.

Yes, let's ban the gas-powered ones. They're hella noisy and belch exhaust, and they aren't really good for the people who usually wear them on their backs and are sucking the fumes and even getting burned.

But it is absolutely untrue that only "lazy people" use blowers, or that they just are blown into the street or other people's property. We use electric blowers at the house, as do most of our neighbors. We live in what used to be a commercial pecan grove, with tons of trees all shedding down at once. The only way to reasonably deal with that amount of leaves is to use blowers to QUICKLY get them piled, and then rake the piles and compost all we can, and bag up what we can't. Otherwise, nobody in our neighborhood could keep up with them. Everyone here also leaves some in the gardens and on the ground for the insects. But if we left it all, we'd just end up killing all the green stuff with thick piles of leaves.

Don't judge the use of a good tool by the way some entitled jerks use it. No blower? They'll still just rake it into the street or their neighbor's property.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. I'm speaking from my own experience dealing with those

Are you calling me a liar?

If you're one who uses them responsibly then you're the exception rather than the rule

[Jirel]

3. Hardly.

It’s a dearly-held myth among blower-haters that those who use them are uncaring, messy, entitled SOBs who are secretly cackling over waking their neighbors at 6:30 on a weekend morning, and leaving messes all over their property. It’s a dumb stereotype, and absolutely not my experience with people who use a very simple labor-saving device to handle their yards exactly like they would if they were hand-raking it all. Though without a doubt there are some we have all seen doing that with blowers AND WITH RAKES, and who deserve shaming.

You sound pretty defensive. Maybe there’s a reason.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. Defensive? That's quite some projection on your part.

In addition you're accusing me of things I didn't say. Oh the poor oppressed users of leaf blowers.

Welcome to ignore.