How do you guys feel about burning ?

[fastfredracing]

It used to be fairly rural where I live. Burning was just a way of life . We live in the house my wife grew up in, and up until I moved in they never had trash pickup. Burnt everything .
I have really taken advantage of this over the years . I burnt 10 years of construction debris from the rental houses . I took out 14 large trees a few years back, and dug huge burn pits (10x10x10) to burn and get rid of the stumps .
Never needed a dumpster for any remodeling I did here. I haul things that cannot burn to my shops dumpster,and anything that I can light on fire gets burnt.
I have since cut way back, but would feel no regrets in burning an old couch , or dresser if I had to . I burn most of our paper and cardboard boxes once a week.
I am far from a green weenie, but I do not burn plastics or synthetic materials like that anymore.
I was looking at my neighbors back yard yesterday, and he has a giant fire pile built up ,with 2 mattresses, an old couch, and other furniture mixed in with all this yard trimmings and branches that are down. I am not bothered by this a bit .
Fast forward to today. My area is up and coming . 200 houses in a new housing plan right at the end of my street . Lots more to come .
Reading the FB page for our community, these people who have recently moved here, are , constantly complaining about people burning . Every weekend, you see post after post by the cackling hens complaining about it. The one lady was taking pictures of her neighbor and calling him out for tossing a few styrofoam pool noodles into his fire and posting said photos online Some of the comments were priceless .
I know they say it is bad for the environment, but I also cannot help to think it not much better to have all this stuff rotting away in a landfill somewhere .
What is your take on all this? Any of you guys burn your trash ?
Happy Easter !

[Porchdog]

I burn heavy paper, cardboard and woody yard debris, including the occasional stump.
We are pretty rural here, most houses have some kind of burn pit.
The farmer nearby was burning a pile of fallen trees and branches in the field next to my house last week.
I won't burn anything noxious.
I don't hear any complaints.

[Zeke]

From what you say you have been continually releasing carcinogens and toxins into the air only to settle someplace else. Particularly in a watershed. It would be better as you say, rotting in a landfill.

What you are doing is a long way from burning seasoned wood for heat.

[stevej37]

My area sounds similar to yours. Most all burn some things outside on occasion.
If I do, it's only fallen tree limbs that I don't know what else to do with.
I also make sure that the wind is not going to direct the smoke in the neighbors direction.

[ossiblue]

Well, I can't really offer up anything but an observational opinion since I've always lived in the 'burbs, and in a location susceptible to air pollution.

When I was a kid, back in the early 50s, everyone had a back yard incinerator. Our first house, near U.S.C, had an incinerator. Our first new house, built in a brand new, post-war tract, had an incinerator as did all others in the tract. This was in a suburb of L.A., close to the airport. Burning trash was routine. It was common practice all over the L.A. basin, if not the valley, to burn trash.

Extreme smog issues put a stop to that, and burning is now taboo. There is no doubt that burning adds to air pollution with regard to particulate matter, and many states/communities currently ban or limit wood fires in fire places when the air gets too polluted. However, when you add toxins like plastic, rubber, and paint, that is something else again.

I cannot offer an opinion on your community except to say that burning does pollute, it will affect the quality of air, especially for individuals with respiratory issues, and adding toxic materials to the mix is something that should be avoided.

[74-911]

In the small TX town I grew up in during the 50's everyone burned their trash. Every house had a burn barrel (55 gal barrel with the top cut out) in the alley. You took all your trash out, put it in the barrel and lit it. Wonderful on wet days when it would just smolder for hours (worse yet it someone put wet chicken feathers or ? in and burned it). Once a month or so old man Horton (as we called him) came down the alley with a wagon pulled by 2 mules and emptied the burn barrels into his wagon.

Finally stopped this sometime during the 1960's IIRC.

[javadog]

Never burned any trash. Can't remember the last time I burned any wood in the fireplace, either. Smoke irritates my nose so I generally try not to make any.

[sc_rufctr]

When I was a kid most houses had an incinerator in the back yard.
Anything combustible was thrown in and that included plastic bags and other synthetic trash.
The ash was thrown out with the non combustible rubbish.

All of that has since been outlawed and we now use a three bin system. (general rubbish, recyclables and green waste)

We can still BBQ with charcoal or briquettes but the Greenies have been pushing to ban that as well.
They also want to ban out door gas fires so your only option is electric.

Personally I think banning incinerators and sorting rubbish has been a step in the right direction.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

I'm rural. I burn. If it doesn't burn, I put it back into the fire until it does!

There's enough deadfall in my yard to burn from here to eternity. Just burning the stuff near the house to reduce the amount of fuel on the ground could keep me very busy.

I'm staring at a cedar a storm took out last fall. Found a dying pine in the front yard as I mowed today "Great, another project" I thought.

Neighbors burn. Exception- my neighbor downwind is a VRBO. I wait until there are no guest there before I light it up. I've got some neighbors who light very large burn piles.

Every year, I burn my christmas tree and post it to FB as a public service message- Flames easily 20-25 feet. Christmas IS dangerous folks.

[Zeke]

When people burned trash in L.A. County in the 50's milk came in a glass bottle. Most packaging was cardboard and paper (a lot was waxed which isn't a big deal). There was a considerable amount of aluminum as well. And there has always been the metal can.

You get the idea.

And that's why the man and the donkey cart came by, to gather the metals for recycling.

[DanielDudley]

I'll burn clean wood and brush, no paint, no plastics or chemicals. I pay 60 dollars a month to have trash and recyclables removed. I sometimes let my neighbors throw in, as the bins are large.

I had two neighbors over the years who would burn plastics, trash and even asphalt shingles. That stuff will choke me out from quite a distance. If I have a problem, I ask nicely. I have made a point of being a good neighbor for as long as I can remember. Maybe not so much as a young hooligan, but since then.

I do a lot of composting too, but sometimes I burn, every three of four years. Clean stuff. I used to burn around two weeks before Christmas, and invite everybody to a winter bonfire and party. I'd save it all up and make a ceremony out of it. People like that, especially if there is food and drink.

My next door neighbor had her barn collapse many years ago, and she had an excavator tear down her house and threw that on the pile as well. This was out on the back 20 acres. I trucked in a lot of brush from clearing and torched the lot for her one day during a phenomenal rain storm that lased two days. It was literally pouring hard from about an hour after I lit the fire, and the flames still hit 30 or 40 feet into the air. A lot of old wood there, it burned hot and looked clean. I don't know if I'd do it today though.

[Seahawk]

We burn twice a year and I have a dedicated "burn pile": mostly wood scraps, old fence boards, lots of tree trimmings and neighbors stuff...same as ours.

I asked the local Environmental Rep about it and he recommend burning vice land fill. I am not smart enough to have an opinion.

We do recycle in ways most folks don't understand: All veggies, coffee grounds, "wet" food, etc. gets composted; as much else as possible goes into the local recycling profile. I have stopped recycling some goods after cursory research.

[Chocaholic]

With an approved permit, we will occasionally burn dead brush, tree limbs but never trash. It’s 2020. Can’t think of a valid reason not to properly dispose to trash.

[wdfifteen]

We don't burn trash, only brush and drops from building projects if the wood is not treated. Anything that's not plain wood goes in the trash.

[stevej37]

There is a neighbor to me...about a half mile away, that doesn't feel the need for weekly trash pickup. When he burns outside..it's rank. A completely diff smell than tree branches or leaves.

[Evans, Marv]

Of course burning is strictly regulated where I live and has been for a very long time. It's classified as a high fire risk area. We do have a burn season during winter into early spring. The Forest Service issues a burn permit after inspecting your burn site and only allows wood, branches, and brush. I can't imagine burning anything that would emit toxic fumes.

[SCadaddle]

[Por_sha911]

If its when you pee go see a doctor.

[porsche930dude]

We burn all the papery kind of stuff. not plastic recycle. Nothing that really would stink or make black fumes like foam. And we end up with like one little bag of trash every few weeks. We burn almost every day out back in a burn barrel. use the papers to get it started and burn yard debris. The barrel really helps keep it hot so there is no fumes and smoking up the neighborhood.

[unclebilly]

We used to recycle paper, cardboard, glass, you name it. There was a great recycling drop station in the Walmart parking lot and we used it religiously.

Then the town went to curb side pickup and they got rid of the recycling drop off. We live outside of town and have no recycling option anymore.

Now we burn all of our cardboard and paper. The glass goes to landfill.

Somebody had an idea...