How to remove leaves in the "greenest" way

Green things to do as Winter approaches -  In the Northeast, it's that time of year again, time to deal with gigantic mounds of leaves.  Our yard is covered in maple leaves, with a few Japanese maple leaves sprinkled in the backyard.

Leaf removal calls for major decisions.  The easy way out is also the worst for the environment.  We could pay some day laborers approximately $400 of our hard-earned money and they would come in with an army of gas-powered leaf blowers.  These things seem as loud as jet engines but they do get the job done.  In the end, they still have to rake the leaves into bags for pickup by the town.

The second choice is to try to use the electric leaf blower/vacuum combination.  Of course the electricity has to come from somewhere so it is not a green solution either.  Plus, the vacuum never works properly and if the leaves are the least bit wet, they clog the vacuum.  I end up emptying the bag from the vacuum into a garbage can lined with a plastic leaf bag and then leave the bags out for disposal.

Another possibility is to use the lawn mower to mulch the leaves.  In theory this should work, but in practice the volume of leaves is just too much.

You might suggest just leaving the leaves on the lawn.  I did do that one year and it was a horrible mess, it killed the grass underneath and instead of a lawn we had a yard with pools of mud after every rain.  By the way, we did stop using any fertilizers or pesticides on our lawn and it has adapted.  It is now the mutt or mongrel of lawns with all kinds of green plants that do manage to cover the soil quite nicely.  After the motley mix of the plants has been mown, it looks like a normal green lawn.

Back to the leaf removal choices.  I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the old-fashioned rake is actually the best choice.  It costs nothing, and does not use an fossil fuels and it doesn't pollute the air.  It also provides a sedentary, overweight American (me) with valuable physical exercise.  I did do some research to find an ergonomic rake that does not clog with leaves.  After raking leaves into several piles, I use an old plastic snow shovel to shovel the leaves into a plastic garbage can lined with a plastic leaf bag.  This solution works well but it does take time.   I find it is a nice time to just relax and watch the world go by.

I do wish there was an alternative to plastic leaf bags.  Those big plastic bags are a tremendous waste of petrochemicals and energy and they foul the environment to boot. 

Not using modern technology is a small sacrifice but if more people went back to simple solutions like the rake, it would be a great benefit to the environment and human health.  I wonder if the day laborers who do leaf removal would use rakes instead of their gas engine leaf blowers?  It might be worth asking if you can't do the job yourself.