Keeping with the Swiss passion for peace and quiet the citizens of Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city, have voted in favour of banning petrol-powered leaf blowers.
In a referendum result disclosed on Sunday, 62 per cent of voters approved a proposal by the left-wing parties ruling the tidy metropolis on the river Limmat to outlaw the use of leaf blowers and “garden vacuums” with noisy combustion engines.
Only 120,000 Zurichers out of an electorate of about twice that number made it to the ballot boxes, presumably because the use of electric leaf blowers remains legal between October and December, satisfying the locals’ other well-documented passion – tidiness.
The referendum had been demanded by the Conservative opposition in Zurich’s municipal council – the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) – in an effort to quell “a nonsensical culture of prohibition” by the coalition left-wingers in power. Furthermore, reckless noise pollution with leaf blowers could already be sanctioned by the police under existing laws, according to the opponents of the ban.
In Switzerland, which has a strong system of direct democracy, opposition groups and in some cases even individuals can launch a referendum against a proposed law – such as the left-wing lawnmower ban.
Those in favour of the prohibition argued that petrol-fired blowers were noisy, unhealthy and “a danger to small animals, which also serve as food for birds, lizards, and hedgehogs” – according to the official referendum booklet.
Swiss newspaper NZZ called the discussion “one of the most absurd controversies in the city”.
With their vote in favour of prohibition, Zurichers are adding a new leaf to history books: The ban is a European premiere as no other city on the continent has apparently completely outlawed the use of leaf blowers with petrol engines – although many regulate the times when leaf blowers may be used.
Such bans are, though, common in the US. In Washington D.C., the Leaf Blower Regulation Amendment Act took effect in 2022, prohibiting the use of petrol-powered leaf blowers under threat of a $500 fine.
California decided in 2021 to become “the first State in the nation to phase out gas-powered leaf blowers”, introducing a sales ban in 2024.
A speaker for the City of Zurich told Brussels Signal yesterday that it was not yet decided when the ban will enter into effect, nor how high the fines for violations will be.
The new rules would, though, likely come with a grace period of a year during which the use of all leaf blowers would still be allowed.
The city administration itself will not be affected by the ban. Its gardening department phased-out the last of its petrol-powered leaf blowers in 2018 and now commandeers a fleet of 139 electrical machines.
Switzerland is notorious for the many rules and social norms governing the coexistence of its inhabitants. These range from strict usage schedules for the communal washing machines in its apartment blocks to upstanding citizens reprimanding their neighbours for getting the street wet while watering their gardens.
