The Demise of the Leafblowers: Unpacking Social Media Discussions

It is well past time for the demise of the leafblowers, my friends!

So let’s unpack why, out of aaaaaalll the controversial topics we write and post about, our desire to be the demise of the leafblowers (in between being the demise of the whole neighborhood, of course) is something that gets even fairly supportive folks all riled up.

People get defensive when it comes to lawn care! When folks feel attacked, whataboutism abounds, (that’s hard to say out loud!) and these conversations fairly quickly devolve into complete chaos in the comment threads.

My goal in this post is to critically unpack some of my thoughts after two hours of engaging in the comment section of this specific thread:

As always, I’d like to remind our readers that the central goal of these conversations is never to criticize. Rather, we aim to bring up questions that allow us to think past the simplicity of suburban norms, and get into the consequences of how upholding these norms causes unsustainable harm to our world.

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Get some critical thinking skills!

First and foremost, let’s talk about critical thought. There were several comments on the thread about how brainwashed I have become by “liberals” and “demonrats” and whatnot, and how I have neither common sense nor critical thinking skills if I find gas-powered lawn equipment harmful based in part on EPA research.

Friends, I may not be great at a lot of things. Cooking, for example! I once tried to cook a pizza but I burned it and then left the oven on for three days.

I assure you – I do know my limitations and what I suck at.

But I do not suck at thinking critically. As I write this, I am bouncing between writing this post and an essay I’m working on for my master’s degree…in critical and creative thinking.

EPA has been around for a hot minute and counts as a reputable source of information. No organization is perfect, but to claim that climate change is some sort of EPA conspiracy and I can’t be intelligent if I believe in its validity is a one-way ticket to the ban hammer.

You only tagged one study!

This was another common rebuttal to my comment stating that gas-powered lawn equipment is harmful and tacking on an EPA link with some good info and fairly readable abstract.

First and foremost, I don’t owe science-denying chuds one single thing. My time is valuable to me, and I am careful to use it wisely and effectively. I could spend hours tagging study after study telling us that lawn equipment emissions are harmful, but I have exactly zero inclination to do so. That information is both widely supported by a body of evidence, and easily accessible from a number of sources.

Presumably, a person with the time, energy, and internet connection to comment on my Facebook post would have the same to pull up some articles (scholarly or otherwise) about the 26.7 million tons of pollutants put out by gas-powered lawn equipment and the other ecologically disastrous impacts of lawns.

Additionally, Facebook comment threads are not academic spaces. I far prefer to engage in a comment thread by discussing human perspectives and ideas, not copying and pasting scientific facts and journal links that no one is going to read. That isn’t the point of a Facebook comment thread.

My leafblower is electric, so it’s fine!

This comment was good to see! Sort of.

I was pleased to see that so many folks have switched to electric lawn equipment. It doesn’t create emissions, right?! Particularly if you charge your electric lawn tools via solar panels or some other form of renewable energy, this is a great step forward.

However, I still find great value in discussing what need there is for leaf blowing in the first place.

Aside from the safety factor of keeping leaves off of sidewalks, there is very little reason to move them around. Leave the leaves, my friends! There are all sorts of bugs and critters who sleep the winter away in leaf litter, and doing a little less lawn cleanup is a fantastic sustainable action item.

If you have ordinances requiring a certain level of cleanup, leaf litter has many purposes in the garden. Leaves are an excellent addition to your compost or have practical use as winter cover for raised garden beds. Consider also, sweeping them into a space that falls within your ordinances rules, or sweeping or raking them to where they can be mulched into your grass.

Leafblowers are easier than sweeping!

Yes, they most certainly are. If you use a leaf blower from an ability standpoint to keep your sidewalk clean, or something of that nature, this conversation is not necessarily directed at you. We talk about accessibility and lawn equipment in another post about snowblowers.

However, if you use a leaf blower purely out of ease, I invite you to reflect on what your inherent beliefs are about ease.

As zero waste activists, we often encourage folks to look past what may be easiest and see the potential consequences of seeking the easier path. Much of sustainable action is simply working to unwind our tendency to prioritize ease. The goal here is to first identify how our actions can unintentionally cause harm. From there figure out how we can mitigate that harm by protesting against harmful – yet easy – systems and norms.

Switching to a broom to clear the walk, then leaving the rest where they lie may or may not be the easiest route, but it has fewer negative consequences than using a noisy leaf blower that generates harmful noise and emission pollution.

Stay out of your neighbor’s business!

We touch on this in many of our posts, but I will reiterate it here.

When someone else’s action, even on their own property, causes quantifiable harm to myself or others, I will speak up about that. When someone 30 feet away from my lawn uses gas-powered lawn equipment on theirs, everything on my property is impacted by that.

I and the kiddo have to go indoors so I don’t get a headache from the smell. The birds become noticeably fewer until the noise abates. All the people and critters in our house get irritable from the ceaseless background whining of the engine.

These negative impacts are quantifiable, and not just anecdotally. Sound research abounds on the harm caused by lawns and lawn equipment to humans and wildlife. Yet the belief that an individual isn’t hurting anything by maintaining their lawn to their liking is still commonplace!

The individualistic idea that “you can’t tell me what to do on my property” is a core value here in suburban U S of A. Although true on many levels, the prioritization of individualistic desires is a norm we seek to change through open discourse about our behavior as suburbanites.

The positive impacts that come from speaking up about the harmful norms we live by here far outweigh any benefit there is to upholding them.

You just lost a follower!

Cool story bro. I do not care.

We’re not in this for the follows, ya’ll. Although I do love that our social media presence has grown as large as it has, that has never been, nor will ever be the goal.

We want to bring challenging conversations into the mainstream, and social media is merely one of the tools we use to do so. When controversial posts pop off as this one did, there are always going to be folks that decide they’ve found their line and they’re no longer interested. That’s fine.

In my experience, the activists that had the most positive impacts on me and my behavior were the ones that challenged me. However, I understand that we talk about many uncomfortable things and some folks might not be ready for that.

We try our best to meet folks where they are, but we have boundaries and are absolutely comfortable holding them.

I will concede to someone that I understand that they aren’t ready to engage with a challenge. I will not concede to someone that the challenge doesn’t ever need to be engaged with because they’re uncomfortable in doing so, and I should stop talking about such challenges to prioritize their comfort.

Closing Thoughts

I know this was long, but I find it important to unpack these kinds of discussions in their entirety, hitting the highlights of all the main ideas discussed.

As I ban folks from the original threads, the comments sometimes go away – including the emotional labor given by myself and others. I find it important to take notes. and screenshots in order to unpack the major themes in the more permanent form of a blog post.

I hope I’ve given you a few things to think about this day as you chew on what I’ve said and some of the links I’ve tagged here. I find that the internet is sorely lacking in these “middle ground” type spaces where we can engage conversationally and intelligently, without devolving into either comment chaos, or what many would find to be boring academic-style writing.

And as always, thank you for reading and supporting our work however that looks like for you!