In April 2017, the city council of Maplewood, New Jersey passed an ordinance banning gas powered leaf blowers between May 15 and September 30. The town's lawmakers said the ban aims to decrease noise and pollution in the community.

Five months later, the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association and nine individual landscaping companies filed a lawsuit against the town of Maplewood claiming the ban was discriminatory and costing them large amounts of money.

The reasoning for this was that the ban only applies to landscape companies and not private individuals, non-commercial associations, or even the city's landscapers. As of this report, the city owns and operates five gas-powered leaf blowers without restrictions.

As a result of the ban, landscape companies have had to use rakes, hoses, brooms and other methods to remove leaves from properties. The lawsuit states this leads to "an adverse impact on business and goodwill, which threatens the continued operation of such businesses."

It will be interesting to see in the coming months if the ban will be overturned, as other cities across the nation are enacting a very similar ban. To read an article of another city's leaf blower ban, Click Here.