trash barrel burning

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by FLRon

....on the rare occasion when the neighbor cranks up his fireplace it produces far more smoke than my burn barrel ever did.

He's doing it wrong. I heat my home with wood in the winter. I burn mostly cherry and other orchard wood, silver maple and sycamore (all well seasoned). No visible smoke from my chimney.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

He's doing it wrong. I heat my home with wood in the winter. I burn mostly cherry and other orchard wood, silver maple and sycamore (all well seasoned). No visible smoke from my chimney.

I don't have a wood stove, but burn wood in my BBQ smoker. The paradoxical thing about smoking meat is that, if you're doing it right, there's not much visible smoke at all.

Of course, burning well-seasoned wood is far different than burning trash.

[RJVB]

Originally Posted by hubcapsc

“It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom.”

There's a burner at the end of my road. I'm certain that, for him, burning is
way better than "just as good" as some other way.

It is even unwiser to be certain of somebody else's wisdom (and plain wrong to assume there could be wisdom in a burner )


BTW, having already burnt my share of old papers to fire up the BBQ or hearth I'm quite certain that would be a lot more efficient after first shredding them ...

[Merak]

I live in a rural area where it is not uncommon to see old refrigerators, TVs and garbage bags thrown in the ditch, not sure why people do that unless they are too poor or cheap to pay for recycling or garbage pickup.
It is common to burn brush with a permit from the town but garbage burning is illegal. No real way to enforce it unless there is a complaint.
I see the big issue with burning is the plastics, its proven that burning plastics create long lasting chemicals that will leach into the groundwater, get absorbed into the plants that grow nearby or breathed in by the people in the area.
We have a culture of short term thinking and burning plastics is a perfect example of sacrificing the long term health of the soil and air for the short term convenience of getting rid of trash with least effort.
How do you get people to voluntarily change their behavior? Everything becomes political these days, where is the common sense respect for neighbors and future generations?

[RJVB]

Originally Posted by Merak

How do you get people to voluntarily change their behavior?

You educate them. Either as you'd educate adults, or if that doesn't work, like you educate kids (or how that used to be done). "One day you'll probably understand, in the meantime just do as I say or else ."

In France and in the Netherlands there are municipal waste deposit sites to which locals have access (freely but in fact paid through local taxes). All it takes to get rid of a fridge (or almost anything else that's not collected from your front porch) is to take it there. Or buy a new fridge - stores have had the obligation to recuperate and recycle the replaced appliances for a while now.

The downside is that we have preciously few "romantic car wrecks" dispersed throughout the countryside

[rmp]

Brush burning is allowed in our town, but only at certain times of the year.

And, the town prefers you to get a permit.

Burning plastic trash barrels? Oy!!

To me, that is just bad behavior.

[catndahats]

A lot of the comments stink and are as toxic as the waste being burned.


on this particular comment, I agree.

Farmers burn fields regularly to produce healthier soil, conservation groups burn forest understories to prevent out of control wildfires. Every living thing makes waste, some of it is necessary to recharge the soils, but a lot of man-made products produce toxic waste.

Folks dumping trash on the side of the road is another story and wrong on every level regardless of the reason (poor, cheap, lazy, etc...)

But the finger pointing, rock throwing crowd is also wrong in many ways. Putting your urban garbage on the curb or in a recycling bin does not make it go away---it just goes somewhere else. Onto a barge and dumped offshore, or into a landfill mountain outside your city that can be seen and smelled for miles and decades. Hills where they burn the methane created 24/7. But in defense, they assume that their trash is handled responsibly---out of sight, out of mind. And in your own home, where do the toxic chemicals go (soaps/cleaners etc...) that you flush everyday? Do you limit that toxic waste?

No one claims burning plastic and other items that emit toxic smoke is ok.
So, those that point fingers saying an individual burning is 100% wrong but municipal processes are fine...not so sure.
Common sense.

Originally Posted by Merak

I live in a rural area where it is not uncommon to see old refrigerators, TVs and garbage bags thrown in the ditch, not sure why people do that unless they are too poor or cheap to pay for recycling or garbage pickup.
It is common to burn brush with a permit from the town but garbage burning is illegal. No real way to enforce it unless there is a complaint.
I see the big issue with burning is the plastics, its proven that burning plastics create long lasting chemicals that will leach into the groundwater, get absorbed into the plants that grow nearby or breathed in by the people in the area.
We have a culture of short term thinking and burning plastics is a perfect example of sacrificing the long term health of the soil and air for the short term convenience of getting rid of trash with least effort.
How do you get people to voluntarily change their behavior? Everything becomes political these days, where is the common sense respect for neighbors and future generations?

[hubcapsc]

You educate them. Either as you'd educate adults, or if that doesn't work, like you educate kids (or how that used to be done). "One day you'll probably understand, in the meantime just do as I say or else ."





-Mike

[imwjl]

No one does this near our main home but some do by our cabin even though trash pickup is available and the county has a trash and recycling drop off a mile away within view of the highway.

This is a real and growing pain at our ski club. A year or more ago a vendor did a trash burn without permission and others are carrying it on as just parochial or tribal behavior that doesn't belong when a few thousand people own and share the same property. The township doesn't allow it and it is close to enough population where people will complain. It's not "exercising freedom" as these fools say when there are 4 dumpsters on the property.

I'm happy to be retired from the board to not deal with these people but admittedly sad that a group of try to not get along people are making trouble.

[RJVB]

Tu es de la police?

Because this sort of thing is in their purview... (notwithstanding how many of them prefer the "do as I say, not as I do" approach)

[Cypress Knee]

I used to live in a small Southern town in the mid-60's, a paper mill town. It seemed like everyone had a burn barrel in the back yard. Now and then a garbage truck would come around and empty the barrels.

The paper mill was about two hundred yards from our house on the corner of Hunt and Third. It was always emitting smoke Now and then the smoke would settle down on the town and it would be thick.

Once a week during the summer the DDT truck would come around and we would chase to the truck to play in the "smoke" billowing out of it.

WE would ride our bikes around the black water levee where the mill run-off was always smoking and occasionally burning.

We didn't have air conditioning. We had an attic fan that sucked cool air in from the outside. The trick was to position your chair or bed so that you benefitted from the draft.

We have come a long way over the past sixty years.

[jdmulli]

“It was a pleasure to burn.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed."

R. Bradbury

I enjoy a good burn myself, trash or otherwise.

[buddyhu]

Originally Posted by jdmulli

“It was a pleasure to burn.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed."

R. Bradbury

I enjoy a good burn myself, trash or otherwise.

Ahh…a quote from Fahrenheit 451, the dystopian novel about a society that has embraced the burning of books, the way many authoritarian regimes seek to solidify their control of others….

[Jim Owen]

Originally Posted by jdmulli

“It was a pleasure to burn.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed."

R. Bradbury

.

Truly a book for our times.

[tinnitus]

There is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution.

I wholly agree that anyone inconsiderate enough to burn plastic (especially in residential areas) genuinely needs of some sort of "education."

The problem is that such thoughtless folks are often resistant to hearing anything from those who might speak up - stubbornly dismissive, confrontational and (sometimes) combative as they see fit.