I used a 55 gallon can and a weed eater.

i actually tried that too, and it does a great job, i don't mess w/ it much anymore cuz it takes too long, and i need help doing it....my dad's mower has a catcher bag on it, i found it to work pretty quick and easy, you could also get on ebay, or go to craigslist and post a wanted ad for a leaf shredder, i had one offered to me for 100 bucks...

Each method of grinding has it's benefits and it's drawbacks. Even the act of grinding could be seen as "bad" when you think about the energy it uses-the gasoline with a lawn mower or chipper type grinder or gas powered type of weed eater. The electricity used in a flowtron (what I have been known to use from time to time)or that style weed eater or chipper grinder. Plus the air pollution involved in using gas or burning coal at the power plants that make the electricity.
And there is your own energy and time used to grind up said leaves/grass clippings/straw/hay/paper stuffs/food wastes or whatever else some people feel the need to grind.
A lawn mower (which I have also used from time to time))is good for grinding huge amounts of leaves, but you'll need a lot leaves to make up for the scattering and tremendous mass reduction and the need to rake or vacuum the stuff back up. A chipper grinder will give the same effect but is somewhat more expensive to purchase and with a lawnmower you can cut your grass as well as grind leaves. A flowtron allows you to contain the grindings just like a weed eater in a trash can but it can be dusty and its best if you only grind leaves cuz small sticks wear out the nylon string faster, but doing it that way at least means no need to sift/screen your compost when it is finished, if screened compost is your thing. Some mechanical grinding methods are at least a little loud but most are deafening.
If you want you could just wait for your compost to cold compost and you won't need to grind or turn or fluff, it just takes time or you could make hot compost and allow the heat to brake apart the leaf particles or as a real professor told me :"The heat acts on the organic matter the same way heat in a crock pot makes the food in it softer and more apt to fall apart". but you do have to fluff or turn it or find some way to put oxygen into the mass (if it is a home owner type pile less than 4x4x4). If you have a pile that's about 10x10x10 then you won't have to turn it to get it hot and keep it hot. but you'll probably need a bobcat to handle/harvest it.
is that too much info? I usually skip the really wordy stuff that some people post here.
IALBTC

We used to dump OPBL all over our lawn: front, back & both sides, on lawn-mowing day. We spread them out real thin, mostly by kicking them around. I picked up and bagged the junk & the large sticks. My daughter shredded the leaves & mowed the grass at the same time. We picked up most of the mix with the bagger, but plenty was left on the lawn for the worms to chew on. We had access to hundreds of bags of leaves and this method worked fine for us.
We had a flowtron many years ago, but I'd never recommend one.

When the chipper/shredder is broken (like right now), the lawn mower has to do extra work and run over leaves four times.

I have a bagger, so I set the height on high, then on medium with plug inserted and bag off. When the size is very fine, the bag goes on and the leaves go in the compost bin with used coffee grounds and or fresh cut grass. There is no better compost start mix. 1.5 pounds of fresh cut grass to 1 pound dry leaves. Dry leaves is for purposes of measuring the best ratio. I often add water to the mix, although spring grass has enough moisture to just mix with the dry leaves.

I use a big plastic garbage bag and a weed eater. I know it's not the greenest thing, but then my teenage boys like to do it and I write it off as family together fun.

I have/had an electric Leaf Eater (made by Flow Tron). It was great for chopping up leaves--I think it was something like 4 bags of leaves would be condensed into one bag. That was how I made three batches of compost in one summer--almost unheard of here.

It was very dirty to use...the dust/dirt from the bagged leaved just covered the operator (me), but I LOVED that machine!

Then the spinner head broke, and the Leaf Eater gathered dust in the shed for several years. (I am not mechanically inclined).

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a replacement part (not here yet--I hope it fits), and I hope to have it in time for the gardening season.

If it doesn't work, I will probably buy a new one. That's how much I liked the old one.

HTH

I've heard the flowtron works well but are dirty as some have said. Last fall I did a double mow, just mulch and didn't bag but I had a lot of leaves this spring as well, I have Oaks that dropped a lot over winter. This past week we had a couple nice days so I raked and bagged, will probably spread them out and run them over with the mower and use them in the new beds I'll be preparing. With all the leaves I'll have again this fall I may purchase a Flowtron or make something myself.

The other day I had a neighbor and his wife out mowing and bagging what leaves were on his property. They are the types that put the refuse out to the curb or burn when permitted. Why they don't just mulch the leaves into the grass I have no idea but he's one of those guys that doesn't want a leaf on his grass it seems.

Brian

Yeah I forgot 1 think that's needed when shredding the leaves in a bin. A dust mask and goggles. Otherwise you'll be blowing leaf dust out your nose for the rest of the day.

My leaf blower I use sucks up the leaves and grinds them at the same time. I just put the catch bag on and suck and grind away lol.

The Black & Decker Leaf Hog is my favorite. It can either blow or vacuum leaves. I either rake or blow the leaves into a pile, then switch it to vacuum. The catch bag that comes with it is too small to be practical, but there's an optional hose and mesh attachment which I use to direct the vacuumed leaf shreds into a garbage can. When the can is full, I drag it into the back yard to dump it in one of the bins. When I steal leaves from the neighbors, I just vacuum from their paper bags into my garbage can, then drag to the bin (and add their bags to the bin while I'm at it).