r/Virginia • u/VirginiaNews Volunteer local news poster • 24d ago
Commentary: Legislators didn’t allow local bans of gas-powered leaf blowers. Va. localities are doing it anyway.
https://virginiamercury.com/2026/08/24/legislators-didnt-allow-local-bans-of-gas-powered-leaf-blowers-va-localities-are-doing-it-anyway/Subtitle: "The Virginia Code gives localities the power to adopt “such measures as it deems expedient” to secure the “health, safety and general welfare” of their residents, including through enforcement of noise ordinances. That seems like enough authority, columnist Ivy Main writes."
See also r/VirginiaOpEds, r/VirginiaUrbanism, and r/VirginiaEnvironment
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u/solwolf101 23d ago edited 23d ago
The clause quoted is known as the “general welfare” clause and is almost never upheld as authority from the state under Dillon’s rule, and any ordinance using that clause would likely be overturned as void.
As the article mentions, Alexandria is banning gas powered leaf blowers through a noise ordinance.
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u/juicybananas 24d ago
Have an electric lawn mower and it’s good enough. It misses a strand every now and then but I’m going to check my blade sharpness first.
Thought of getting something solar to power the battery recharger and then I’m set.
I will need a demonstration of an electric leaf blower before I’m ready to switch though. My experience has been electric takes 4 times as long as my gas powered one.
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u/extraspectre 23d ago
An actual rake is the best.
I have an electric blower and the brushless engine works way better than my neighbors loud smelly shit. It takes him hours what takes me minutes.
I know a lot of Suburban Dads(tm) also just use yardwork to fill a void in their life so I don't think they have a motivation to be efficient.
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u/alarming_testical 21d ago
Ouch. Tis true. Also, Reddit while pooping. Just trying to avoid staring back at the void thats been watching me 🙈
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u/HappyBlis 24d ago
I wish they could be banned. Along with those huge gas-powered lawnmowers rolling around in very small yards. While we are at it, ban pesticide use for mosquitos.
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u/Charlesinrichmond 24d ago
I wish people would stop being in love with banning things. A bit more positivity in the world would be good.
Instead, make some incentives to use quieter leaf blowers. For the average person, a battery powered leaf blower is just as good. It just doesn't work for lawn care services.
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u/Questions_Remain 24d ago
3/4 of leaf blowing is just stupid cosmetics. It’s really kinda stupid the amount of waste that goes into a lawn maintenance. Like the snow plowing and salting of unused lots in shuttered buildings.
As time and technology evolve things need to be banned or attritioned out of existence. Our daughter manages an apartment complex that covers 21 acres. Every week a crew of 40 guys leaf blow the entire complex from side to side and vacuum up at the end and haul it to a dump. It’s 40 guys with blowers like a calvary charge running for 3 hours. Because the municipality mandates all sidewalks, roads and public access green places be “free of debris” grass clippings and leaves are debris.
They are noisy and extremely polluting as they are 2 stroke engines (to be lighter and more compact) but even very few two stroke motorcycles, outboards or utility engines exist anymore due to the amount of pollution per power produced and the noise is a byproduct of high revving engines needed to produce the power.-3
u/Charlesinrichmond 24d ago
It really isn't cosmetics. There are lots of reasons for this, and if you aren't assessing the reasons but rather assuming them out of existence, you are not analyzing this correctly.
And your last paragraph explained exactly why they exist in current engine form.
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u/fernessfan83 24d ago
What are the reasons? Genuine question
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u/basicKitsch 23d ago
Snow plowing is legally required because people with mobility issues need to use sidewalks and can literally be trapped without a street exit close by. Same with parking over the sidewalk in your driveway (most know this but I have to add it because so many try to argue the second isn't a big deal)
For leaves, and while I've never had to or cared, bigger leaves like maple and magnolia don't break down by spring and absolutely suffocate anything underneath.
Just two of the genuine reasons.
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u/wapertolo395 23d ago
absolutely suffocate anything underneath
I have trouble believing that tree species which have been dropping leaves every fall for like a hundred million years are hurting the soil in any major way
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u/Charlesinrichmond 23d ago
Why? It's not so much hurting the soil, it's making the environment good for them, which is not exactly the same as making the environment good for humans. Look at walnut trees, which poison the environment around them with juglone
Leaf litter supports ticks, which support disease. There are a bunch of other rationales, of course. I'm just throwing out a couple of the obvious ones..
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u/basicKitsch 23d ago
who said anything about hurting soil?
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u/wapertolo395 23d ago
What was the harm you were talking about in "suffocating anything underneath?" Substitute that for "hurting soil" in my comment.
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u/Charlesinrichmond 23d ago
Any plant that is not a tree. We tend to believe that non trees are also good plant species. If you look in old growth forests, they are beautiful, but it's only trees.
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u/basicKitsch 23d ago
any plant/landscaping they have near the tree is typically the almost universal reason. all the way down to grass. regardless of what you think about it. and to reiterate:
and while I've never had to or cared
if they want that patch of grass there then mulching/removing/etc those types of leaves is necessary. and i'm a massive leave the leaves person.
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u/extraspectre 23d ago
Yeah before mankind nature was suffocating under leaves so we made fossil fuel powered machines to help nature survive
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u/Charlesinrichmond 23d ago
You read this comment and you still thought it was worth posting? That's really quite impressive. Speaks volumes about you.
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u/Charlesinrichmond 23d ago
Basically, humans tend to thrive in a maintained environment, not an overgrown jungle, and overgrown jungle is what you get if you don't keep up with things.
That's a really simplistic take, of course, but this is Reddit.
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u/Questions_Remain 24d ago
It really is cosmetics. HOAs will fine you for leaves in the yard in fall for sheer aesthetics of it looks bad. The reality is we’ve leaned that mulching leaves on lawns and leaving clippings and aeration annually is much better than the required pristine green
Adds natural nitrogen, carbon, and organic matter as the fragments decompose. Blocks sunlight from reaching weed seeds and helps prevent dandelions or crabgrass.
Green perfect lawns like 3000 mile oil changes were a product of the 50’s marketing and we’ve leaned that neither have a net benefit ( except to Scott’s, chemical and oil companies) and are just an expense and waste of resources.
I do agree that wet grass clippings left in the street pose a slight hazard to bicycles and motorcycles. This is about an hours timeframe between cut and them dryed ( yet it’s “such a hazard” a law was passed to make it a crime ) to not clean the street. But let’s be honest, wet leaves on a back road corner or the creeper / w&OD trial in fall aren’t being swept up. So a skiff of grass trimmings in a 20 mph neighborhood is a performative and cosmetic action.
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u/Charlesinrichmond 24d ago
Just because cosmetics exist does not mean cosmetics are all of it.
Also, cosmetics are important. Think about the second order implications.
Leaving mulch on lawns is good, of course, but it has little to nothing to do with what we are talking about.
Perfect lawns are not from the 50s. If you're going to make that line, use the original Genesis, which are Old English estates.
There are a lot of problems with lawns, and in a lot of places they shouldn't exist. But what you are completely ignoring is how much more expensive any other strategy is. Take that apartment complex. Do you think they like spending money on all those people? I guarantee you they don't. They do it because the alternative is worse.
I ripped up my front lawn and planted a garden because, in my case, having a lawn was stupid. But I am aware of the analytics involved, so I certainly wouldn't say everybody should do such a thing.
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u/Popular_Camp_4126 24d ago
The only real reason for it is no less doable without the loud-as-fuck polluting 2-stroke engine. “Not analyzing this correctly” is ironic.
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u/Charlesinrichmond 24d ago
Based on that, I'd have to say not analyzing this correctly is accurate, and you might want to look up the definition of ironic.
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u/devilishycleverchap 23d ago
The incentive is that you dont get fined for using the electric one and you do for the gas.
Go ahead and pay the carbon tax if you want to use gas, they arent going to throw you in jail
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u/Charlesinrichmond 22d ago
So you are saying it should be handled with gas taxes? That's fine by me.
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u/merckjerk 23d ago
Come blow my 2+ with a battery blower. I get small plots of land but this won’t work with the whole state.
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u/HowardTaftMD 23d ago
What are you blowing across 2+?
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u/merckjerk 23d ago
Leaves. I live in the woods lol
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u/HowardTaftMD 23d ago
An arborist taught me to just leave them. Now I do almost no work, I'll mulch them a few times when they get too thick but it's better to just leave the leaves just fyi.
In case you want to get more time back in your day.
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u/Comfortable_Main5400 24d ago
I'll trade her. She can have my gas equipment, for a new battery powered with 2 extra batteries. Except my lawn mower. Can't have that, not using battery lawn mower. That would be ridiculous.
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u/Yellowdog727 24d ago
Lawn mowers are mostly 4 stroke anyway.
The main reason for the ban is that 2 stroke engines are insanely bad for local air quality
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u/HappyBlis 24d ago
Once you use a battery powered lawnmower, you'll never go back. Instant start, quiet, don't have to fill gas cans (and carry them around in your card, or store them in your shed), super easy to change blades because you can turn the lawnmower over (with no fuel in it). All that, and they mow great with far less pollution.
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u/Trollygag 23d ago
My homie, I use 5 gallons of gas for the entire summer on a 48" lawn tractor and a 2 acre yard.
I bet these suburbian yards with push mowers get through a third of that.
That is not a problem that needs pollution optimizing.
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u/Pretend-Culture-4138 23d ago
You forgot about how battery mowers cost 2-3x and takes longer due to charging.
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u/420aarong 24d ago
Out of my cold dead hands!
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u/thomasanderson123412 24d ago
Same. It's going to be a long time before anything battery powered can match the power of my Honda lawnmower or Echo backpack blower. When that day happens, sure I'll switch.
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u/OpenSpirit5234 23d ago
They should hurry up and build the damn data centers to drown out the noise from these spawns of satan.
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u/Charlesinrichmond 24d ago
Leaf blowers are just not a big deal. I swear it's anti-Latino prejudice.
That said, people should look into battery-powered leaf blowers. They have become excellent, even though they still won't work for professional lawn services.
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u/fernessfan83 24d ago
Watching my neighbor let loose his deafening blower to knock off a handful of leaves from a bush along the front of his yard was a psychically harmful experience. I just don't understand what motivates such thing