Landscapers: Banning gas leaf blowers would be less efficient
As Norwalk discusses a potential ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, landscapers say switching to electric devices would be more expensive
NORWALK — Some local landscapers say a proposal to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in the city would be impractical and cost prohibitive to switch to electric equipment.
The Common Council’s Ordinance Committee this month heard from four presenters who outlined electric-powered alternatives to gas leaf blowers, which they say pose environmental and noise risks that could result in loss of wildlife and hearing.
The conversation is in the preliminary stages and no ordinance has been drafted. Other municipalities, including Stamford and Westport, have also initiated
similar discussions to ban gas-powered blowers.
Six Norwalk residents spoke at this month’s meeting in support of banning the gas-powered equipment, but local landscapers say they have a different perspective.
Tysen Canevari, who owns and operates Signature Landscaping, said when the movement to ban gas-powered equipment began about two years ago in Westport, he was confident it would never come to Norwalk.
“I watched the meeting of the ordinance committee, and I was in shock at what I was listening to,” Canevari said.
Canevari, a fifth generation Norwalk resident, maintains a mix of commercial and residential properties, including larger housing complexes.
Canevari understood the shift to environmentally friendly services and purchased several smaller electric pieces, including weed-whackers and a hedge trimmer, but the devices require frequent battery charges. Cleaning the yards, particularly the grounds of large condo and apartment complexes, without battery or gas-powered equipment is impractical, he said.
Adding a solar panel to charge the devices on the go was considered, but he said it was also not practical because it’s considered a fire hazard.
“With fuel costs, I thought, ‘let me inquire about it for little items.’ We can save a bit of fuel in that regard because they’re not too powerful, they could probably run on batteries,” Canevari said. “But backpacks and blowers take a lot of energy. How would we go in and rake those places? They’re 30 homes. How would you turn a profit and how would I charge these people? We would be here for a week raking the property.”
One of the ordinance committee meeting presenters, Jeff Codrulack, operates Organic Ways and Means, a landscaping business using only electric and handoperated tools.
In business for four years, one of the properties maintained by Cordulack with electric equipment is the housing complex of Village Creek in Norwalk. Prior to Cordulack taking over Village Creek, the property was maintained by Contour Landscaping.
Contour Landscaping is owned by Martin Devaney, who has worked at the company for four decades and took over ownership about 30 years ago. Devaney first heard about the shift to electric equipment about five years ago.
“I was the previous landscaper at Village Creek, until they decided they were going all-electric. The day they told me, I said, ‘good luck with that,’” Devaney said. “There is a certain faction of people in every town, people who want to go all green, don’t like pesticides. Hopefully, I’ll have grandkids, I don’t want to ruin the future for generations, but there’s no solid proof that come from the guidelines on any of this.”
Even if an ordinance were approved to ban gaspowered leaf blowers, Devaney said he would likely continue using his existing equipment.
“I’m not sure I’m stopping anything without a fight,” Devaney said. “I don’t think it’s going to pass. I don’t know how to react because I don’t believe it’ll happen. It’s just talk, and nothing is going to come of it.”
Marc DeSimone, owner of KMG Landscaping, said the environmental benefits of the electric equipment is not as significant as the ordinance committee presenters made it seem. DeSimone maintains mainly residential homes in Norwalk and has worked in the city for more than 15 years.
The fossil fuels required to create the batteries for electric-powered mowers and leaf blowers outweigh the impact of using gasoline for the work, DeSimone said.
“Batteries can’t be recycled, so it’s going to a landfill and costing more fossil fuels than if it was a truck of blowers. It’s kind of doing the opposite,” DeSimone said.
The landscapers said the biggest concern about switching the equipment is the cost of the electric devices compared with the gas-powered equipment.
“We buy the best, most powerful equipment we can buy, which makes us more efficient, so we are on the property for less time,” DeSimone said. “Some of the electric stuff doesn’t have the hour capacity than gas equipment, so we’d be installing charging equipment in trucks or charge batteries in customers houses.”