How can I get the gardening service at our townhouse complex to stop using gas-powered leaf blowers?

The long answer

You are quite right about the terrible harm that gas-powered leaf blowers do to the environment, emitting planet-warming emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, as well as toxic chemicals and carcinogens like benzene. The California Air Resources Board estimates that operating a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour releases emissions equivalent to driving a car for 15 hours or 1100 miles. And the highly damaging noise, which has been likened to standing next to a jet engine at an airport, can cause permanent hearing loss. 

An article in The Atlantic by James Fallows, a writer who worked with neighbours on a successful effort to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in Washington, D.C., explains how air pollution is generated by the two-stroke engine found in many leaf blowers: “It’s simpler, cheaper, and lighter than the four-stroke engines of most modern cars, and has a better power-to-weight ratio. But it is vastly dirtier and less fuel-efficient, because by design it sloshes together a mixture of gasoline and oil in the combustion chamber and then spews out as much as one-third of that fuel as an unburned aerosol.”

And to support your point about the gardeners who are not provided with personal protective equipment, a CBC radio interviewee, Vipond, had this to say: “The people most exposed to the pollutants and to the noise from these machines are the people that work with them every day. And these are generally low-income people who are the least able to avoid these risks.”

Clearly, he says, the regulation of these devices is an equity and social justice issue. But in America there has been pushback from “a powerful lobby of landscape companies” who complain about the transition costs of moving from gas-powered to electric.

But, said another interviewee, Nevitt, “With the availability of effective electric leaf blowers — both plug-in and battery-powered, there's really no reason to have gas-powered leaf blowers.”

Electric leaf blowers do not emit planet-warming emissions; are cheaper to own and operate than gas-powered equipment, and are far quieter than gas-powered versions. 

The fact that your communications have been ignored by both your garden service and the garden trustee of your townhouse complex, would seem to indicate the same sort of pushback, as well as failure to respect and protect the gardeners. 

It would be worth trying to increase the number of people in your complex who are prepared to support your protest against the gas-powered leaf blowers, as it is always harder to ignore a group of people than a single person or couple. Perhaps you could invite other residents to a meeting and explain the harm being done by the leaf blowers, and ask them to sign a petition which you could submit to the garden trustee and copy in the Body Corporate of the complex? 

This would also help to strengthen your case to the government department that is mandated “to give effect to the right of citizens to an environment that is not harmful to their health or wellbeing, and that is protected for the benefit of current and future generations”. 

This is The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).

You can lodge a complaint with the DFFE in writing, telephonic or via e-mail. They say that they will promptly address all complaints within a reasonable timeframe. 

Contact details: 

Call Centre: 086 111 2468

Email: callcentre@environment.gov.za or callcentre@dffe.gov.za

The DFFE head office is actually in Pretoria, at 473 Steve Biko & Soutpansberg Roads, Arcadia, Pretoria, 0083.

They say they have:

• Share call to assist the public with environment queries, call: 086 111 2468

• Hotline for tip-offs on contraventions of environmental legislation, call: 0800 205 005

• Email for environmental crimes: envirocrime@dffe.gov.za

There is also the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), which has a site for reporting violations (https://cer.org.za/report-a-violation). The site says you can report an environmental incident or crime that harms or has the potential to harm your health or well-being, or that of the community in which you live. This includes contraventions of laws relating to pollution, waste, air quality, biodiversity, protected areas or coastal management.  

The CER is an NGO based in Cape Town, but they may be able to connect you to a relevant organisation in Pretoria. Their email is info@cer.org.za.

There is also the option of contacting the municipality about the noise nuisance caused by the gas-powered leaf blowers. All municipalities have the authority to enact by-laws.

For example, the Tshwane (Pretoria) bylaws of 2010 stated:

“Compliance with the regulations: No person may make, produce or cause a disturbing noise or a noise nuisance, or allow it to be made, produced or caused by a person, animal, machine, device or apparatus or any combination of these agents. If you have to report a noise or want to find out how to comply, please call 012 358 4656 (Municipal Health Services).”

A “nuisance” is defined as any condition or conduct which is injurious or offensive to any person or which is dangerous to or compromise the health or safety of any person or which causes an annoyance or disturbance to any person or to the residence of any area or which constitutes a threat or a potential threat to the environment or which causes harm or damage to the environment, or which may potentially harm or damage the environment.

A 2020 article by Crime Watch SA about disturbance of the peace says the Regulations define noise disturbance as follows:

“Any sound which disturbs or impairs or may disturb or impair the convenience or peace of any person” and “disturbing noise” as “a noise level that exceeds the ambient sound level measured continuously at the same measuring point by 7 decibels or more.”

“Noise nuisance can include playing loud music or a musical instrument or operating a television set loudly, operating machinery or power tools that cause a noise nuisance, shouting and talking loudly, allowing an animal to become a noise nuisance, operating a vehicle that causes a noise nuisance and driving a vehicle on a public road in a manner that causes a noise nuisance.” 

A “noise nuisance” is usually something that is frequent and happens over a long period. An example of this would be operating a vehicle or machine that makes constant loud noises.

A lawyer can also apply to the court for an interdict in such a case.

Chris Fick & Associates says the following about taking such legal action: 

“The infringement of one’s right to the reasonable enjoyment of one’s property (i.e., the nuisance) must furthermore be persistent and continual in order for such infringement to be actionable. Only a person who owns the affected property or lawfully occupies such property will have locus standi to institute legal action.

An interdict is usually the appropriate remedy. Such an interdict can either be prohibitory (which directs the guilty person to refrain from doing something), or it can be a mandatory interdict (which compels a person to perform a certain act).” 

The non-provision of protective equipment to the gardens operating the gas-powered leaf blowers can be reported to any of the above as part of the same complaint. Obviously, it would be better if the gardeners themselves were to demand protective equipment from the garden service, but as observed above, people doing that sort of work are generally poor people. And poor people are often not confident about making demands in case they lose their jobs.

Hoping that one or more of these suggestions will help you to put an end to the gas-powered leaf blowers.

Wishing you the best,
Athalie