The crux with the leaf blower

When children's feet rustle through mountains of leaves, it roars again: the leaf blower. Few technical developments in recent decades have divided the public like this device, with which people try to control the autumn tide of leaves. If they are used, complaints about the noise, comparable to that of a jackhammer, increase among the authorities. If you leave them out, as in Haar near Munich last year, complaints about extra work and poor aesthetics accumulate. Small creatures such as insects, hedgehogs and children like brown mountains of leaves.

Every autumn for around a quarter of a century, the devices have been blowing leaves and everything else that can move away from the ground at well above hurricane force. In doing so, they destroy the food base and places of refuge for numerous creatures. This is also unhealthy for people, because in addition to noise and exhaust fumes, all sorts of fungal spores and dog excrement are thrown into the air. Nevertheless, hobby gardeners, companies and municipal waste disposal companies are sticking to the use of leaf blowers.

The Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) has also strongly advised against using it since 2021. "These devices should not be used in the private sector at all and in the public sector only if their use is indispensable," writes the BMUV on its website. If so, at least "low-noise and low-emission devices should be used", i.e. above all electrically powered devices. However, the ministry cannot do much more than warn. "A ban on leaf blowers is not possible for reasons of European law and competition law," it says.

The municipal cleaning services refer to traffic safety and consider the use to be indispensable. "Lots of leaves can be a traffic hazard, just like fallen leaves that freeze pose a real safety risk," says a spokeswoman for the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU). The leaves can also be washed into gullies and thus clog the drainage. Could brooms and rakes also solve the problem? "The workload in the autumn in the green maintenance could not be lifted without technical support," it says. That sounds surprisingly without alternative for a device that only became widespread in the late 1990s.

The municipal cleaning companies in the three largest cities in Germany in terms of area, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, argue similarly. When asked by WELT, all three disposal companies emphasized the importance of the devices for road safety. In view of the massive criticism, they rely on conversion instead of doing without - with Berlin lagging behind.

Every autumn, the Hamburg city cleaning department has to deal with around 20,000 tons of leaves from around 250,000 trees, and a total of 290 blowers are used. Most of them are electric. These e-devices are considered to be more environmentally friendly because they are quieter and produce fewer emissions than petrol-powered devices. The city cleaning department currently keeps 20 of the latter in reserve; if possible, they should no longer be used and will be replaced from next year.

According to the Cologne waste management company (AWB), they own 84 leaf blowers, almost 90 percent of which are electric. Petrol-powered devices are no longer purchased. According to AWB, 100 percent of the electricity for the devices comes from the company's own photovoltaic systems. The remains of 80,000 street trees have to be cleared, which roughly corresponds to 6,400 tons of leaves.

And then there is the Berliner Stadtreinigung BSR, which has around 1,040 leaf blowers – 790 petrol-powered and 250 electric-powered – and 100 petrol-powered leaf vacuums in use in autumn. "However, cordless blowers cannot completely replace petrol-powered ones due to their lower performance," says a spokesman. 36,000 tons of leaves from around 433,000 trees have to be managed.

In Berlin, there is one blower or sucker for every 380 trees - in Hamburg, on the other hand, there are 862 trees per blower, including reserves. Cologne is in an even better position, with one wind blower in relation to 952 trees - even though the E rate in Cologne and Hamburg is far higher than that of the BSR.

The people of Hamburg are increasingly relying on the use of large brooms as well as small and large sweepers. The piles of leaves are then picked up by so-called Trilos – truck containers with suction nozzles. Cologne also works with such trucks and leaf suction trailers. Since these machines are used on roads and thus on sealed surfaces, their use is less controversial.

The leaf blowers are different. The Berliners justify the intensive use with the workload. Depending on the application, a leaf blower can cover the area required by several manual cleaning workers. So it's a question of personnel and costs, and the energy crisis hasn't changed anything, even if the BSR claims that the high energy prices are having an impact. The VKU also points out that the municipal waste disposal companies train their staff regularly. The aim is to keep the burden on health and the environment small.

The examples of a few cities show that it can also be done without leaf blowers. In Germany, the city of Starnberg has been doing without leaf blowers and vacuums for ten years. In Austria, the use in the cities of Graz and Leibnitz has been banned since 2014 because of air pollution. The municipality of Haar, on the other hand, announced after the test in the 2020/21 leaf season that it intends to use leaf blowers in moderation again in the future.

One can only speculate about the private use. Judging by the noise level, some conservationists prefer an insect hotel to the rake. Many a caretaker continues to chase individual leaves with the leaf blower with stoic patience. As long as the EU does not intervene, he is in the right outside of the rest periods. Autumn is still the time when the leaf blower roars.

The Federal Environment Ministry wants private individuals to no longer use leaf blowers in the future. Because the devices posed a deadly danger not only for insects.

Source: WELT/Laura Fritsch