New ordinance in Burlington bans gas-powered leaf blowers

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Leaf blowers that are not electric are now prohibited in the city of Burlington from Memorial to Labor Day.

Due to an ordinance which went into effect on Memorial Day, only electric or battery powered leaf blowers which operate at 65 decibels or less are permitted to be operated in the city by any resident or company between these dates.

In the fall, gas is permitted but only under 65 decibels as well, which is significantly under what most landscaping companies own.

For local landscaping companies they say this will be impacting their business in the summer and year round.

“Not being able to use a leaf blower it’s asking us to transition to electric equipment which thousands of dollars you only get limited use, limited power,” Justin Kirk of JJ’s Landscaping said. “It makes our jobs a little big harder than most people would really realize and it’s a lot of money we don’t want to shell out when we’ve already shelled out thousands of dollars for equipment already.”

The City Council passed this ordinance last year to help decrease noise pollution, carbon emissions and to eliminate nuisances caused by leaf blowers.

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