I'm totally onboard with transitioning to renewables and lesser-polluting technologies but I see several problems with this. First is, who's going to pay for all the additional battery disposal and where are the disposed batteries going? Oakland and Almeda County have long-term contracts with their hazardous waste disposal sites and this new ordinance will likely make their costs exceed their contract. Who's going to cover that? Also, those hazardous waste contractors are under no obligation to recycle the dead batteries. They could literally put the dead batteries in a 55 gallon drum in a hole in the ground, and they'd still get paid. Is that really better for the environment? Without making mandatory changes on the waste side, I don't see how requiring people to buy new technology is going to truly help the environment.
For contractors and jobs too, how many professional landscapers can afford the switch to electric? A small 3 or 4 person landscaping crew could run a leaf blower for 8 hours a day. The best battery-operated blowers currently run for 30 minutes per charge and cost about $300 per battery. For an 8 hour day, you're going to need 16 batteries fully charged batteries, although you could potentially have as few as 6 batteries if you have a way to charge them during the work day. Either way, that's $1800 for 6 batteries or potentially as much as $4,800 for 16 batteries... which of course will all need to be properly recycled and replaced about every 2 years with high usage.
Like I said, I like renewables where they make sense but IMO this policy doesn't make sense for the environment or for jobs.