Burning trash

RCannon · Oct 29, 2004

Anyone here burn all their trash?

I get a weekly pick up of my trash 2-3 bags /week, but I have 2 neighbors who burn all of theirs. Now to compare to them, each neighbor is very similar to us... 2 people, we have three dogs.
1st neighbor..him and his wife 80y/o very little company
2nd neighbor..him, wife, 2 dogs, 5 horses, goats, grandkids older adults visiting every week sometimes staying there.

How do you get rid of the stuff that doesn't burn?

Ken_f · Oct 29, 2004

We burn ours too. Its just my wife and me but we are always amazed at the quantity of stuff that you can produce.

The county / township are now charging $80 a quarter for trash pickup. No way am I going to pay that !!

We compost the food, recycle the cans / bottles with a neighbor in her recycle bin. The heavy scraps of metal and such from doing stuff around the farm get buried or taken to the dump (free).

I burn everything else. With clearing acres of brush I usually have a good base built up so the trash added to it really does not matter.

Its probably 50/50 around here.. I see fires burning all of the time at farms / yards

SPIKER · Oct 29, 2004

I see a lot of different ways wround here:

I burn the paper/trash and recycle the alum cans & glass free by dumping it at locall pickup (I don't get paid for it but probably could it is a free community recycle program with dumpsters for each of several items) what is left is pretty much ash only. I will someday have an outside wood burner where a lot of the stuff can be used as fuel to heat water & fire starting. the compostables go straight to the garden. like others that 60/month for rural trash picjup is too much. the city trash we have also is getting to 45/mo now...

though burning is getting harder and harder to get away with without having proper containment vessels such as an incineraator... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Mark M

ByronBob · Oct 29, 2004

We have a town dump. Bags are $1.50 each. Recycled materials are free. Tires, batteries, propane tanks and such have a fee.
I burn the paper and normally run to the dump each week with something.

Golfgar4 · Oct 29, 2004

We have a city/county landfill, with weekly curbside trash pickup within the city and every other week recycling pick-up. No burning allowed within city limits. No charge to take to landfill for residents up to 60 gallons (still haven't figured out how they know you've got 60 gallons of non liquid material /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif). Out of town residents pay a fee and residents that exceed the maximum load pay, although I'm not sure how much it is. Don't know how much the curbside pickup service would cost as it's part of the services the local government provides.

RobertN · Oct 29, 2004

Around here, you can not burn trash. You can have a burn pile, but it can only consist of "yard debrie", ie leaves, tree trimming, ect.

Our neighbor got nailed last spring. He was burning some yard debri, with a lot of construction debri mixed in. Stunk the whole neighborhood up. Someone called on him. I think he thought I did it, as a ex-firefighter, but it was someone else.

Our area has garbage collection service.

bczoom · Oct 29, 2004

I burn paper products (except newspapers).

Aluminum cans go to the neighbor kid up the road.
All other recyclable items get picked up every other week.

The rest goes in the trash for collection. Around here, there is no town/city collection. You pick a company and pay them directly. Mine is $39/quarter. They'll take anything I leave out there.

MMM · Oct 30, 2004

Short 1.5mi trip to parish (county) dumpster. They are spaced about every 5mi, more numerous around communities and towns. They empty them twice weekly. It's free and you don't see illegal dump piles or much road trash. They have the chain gang out on litter patrol constantly also. The word is out on breaking the law 'round here. When they say hard labor, they mean it!

JJT · Oct 30, 2004

No, but many of my neighbors do. We recycle paper, glass, cardboard and plastic, it's picked up once a month. We pay for trash pickup, ($20/mo for 1 can/week), because the transfer station is 10 miles away and the hours don't mesh with our schedule.

We have a regulation against burning trash but it isn't enforced.

turnkey4099 · Oct 30, 2004

I used to burn in a trash barrel with both ends cut out, burns cleanly after it gets going. Then the state started basically offering a bounty for citizens to rat off trash burners. I now do only a couple burns a year.

We have mandatory trash service, pick up once per week. You pay whether or not you use it. I put out 1 can per week very fully packed. Usually manage to get it all in except for paper and cardboard. That I haul to town every few months to the recycle bins.

Harry K

Inspector507 · Oct 30, 2004

Here in Ohio, there are "Open Burning Laws". If you live within 1000' of a village or town with up to 10,000 people you can't burn at all. If the village or town has 10,000-40,000 people, you can't burn within 4000' of it. Since my rear yard is about 500' from the city limits, I'm screwed. The local fire department has come out to my neighbors house a few times to "help her put it out" /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

techman · Oct 30, 2004

We burn too.

The plastics, cans, bottles and newspapers go out for recycling. All sort of food scraps go in the woods and the little that is left is the garbage that we put out. About 1 bag every 2 months, at $3.75 a bag. A few things we do not want to put in the woods, like meat scraps and bones, so as not to attract certain animals, and so our dogs don't get at it. Those items we put in a zip lock bag that we put in the big freezer to prevent any rot/smell. It then goes in the garbage when we put it out.

Most of the burning is paper and cardboard, mostly packaging materials.

Of course burning is allowed in the township, and I have a "fire pit" above ground made of old bricks, on a small concrete pad. I used barrels in the past, but they only lasted a year or so before rusting into un-usability. My bricks are nearly 10 years old.

paul

California · Oct 30, 2004

( Around here, [Sierras foothills] you can not burn trash. You can have a burn pile, but it can only consist of "yard debrie", ie leaves, tree trimming, ect. -RobertN)

Over by the coast its even stricter. Agricultural pruning only.

My neighbor said he got fined when he added grass clippings on to a big pruning pile. That caused more smoke than twigs and limbs would have.

This rule, along with the extension of auto smog control standards to the coastal counties, was enacted to alleviate the pollution that blows east and stacks up against the base of the Sierras.

I think Sacramento exceeds federal air quality standards several days per year and the foothills even more frequently. We've reached the limit of what the environment can absorb for us.

RobertN · Oct 30, 2004

Ah, yes, emissions... I wish they had super-duper extra smog reg's on from the coast over. Living in the foothills, we get everything. And, elevation does not help generally; the smog layer goes to ~4000'.

Everything stacks up here, making the bad smog days REALLY bad for us. I dislike the extra regs, especially as over regulated as Kalifornia is. But the smog... When you watch the forecasts, you can see the ozone and nasty stuff really stack up just east of Folsom on the H50 corridor, and east of Rocklin on the I80 corridor.

PineRidge · Oct 30, 2004

On a calm day I'll burn cardboard and paper in a heavy screen metal bin and recycle the ash in the garden. Everything else we pay to have hauled away. I don't strike a match on a windy day.

vt990 · Oct 30, 2004

burn trash? Where do you think trash goes when you burn it? It's not just gone. It's air pollution. Think of all those milk cartons and frozen food boxes floating around your neighboorhood. Burnt trash doesn't just disappear. It's just disperesed. At least when you pay for disposal you know where your trash is, and you're not forcing your neighbors to breathe it.

And if that doesn't convince you, in most places it's illegal to burn trash.

RICHARDG · Oct 30, 2004

Well,,with all this talk from govenments and politicans about enviorinment and such,,,you would think trash pickup would be free anywhere in america,,,goverment subidized,,thats the word,,,,that would be one of the best ways to prevent pollution and recycle,,,,but it seems they are not interested,,,,mine costs about 250 a year,,no limit,,,not a bad deal I guess,,,but,,,I live in rural w.va.,,,no rules,,,even got an old dump on my property,,small one,,,could burn 24 hrs a day and nobody would bother me none,,,well maybe the real dry months, they might eventually say something if I didn't just burn at night,,,,but what I was burning would never be an issue...trash oughta be picked up for free,,paid for by your goverment,,,they ought to do something for their money except 1/5 fund the schools,,and kinda clean off snow,,,,this is another reason,,I don't vote,,,it just encourges the whole process,,,lest I live in a place where I can say,,,no,,don't want no trash pickup,,,,,go bush,,thingy

To20Chris · Oct 30, 2004

We burn paper or wood only. However, my neighbor, the one who is running an auto restoration business in violation of the zoning, and which must be accessed by crossing my land, burns everything. Plastic, old containers with painting solvents, whatever. Often, when we're trying to enjoy our home on a beautiful day, the reek of smoldering trash goes on all day. It makes your nose and eyes burn, and it infuriates me. So if you burn, keep your neighbors in mind, and remember that burning plastics can release a lot of toxins.

RICHARDG · Oct 30, 2004

Yeah,,know what you mean,,,but you got to relieze,,,over half[maybe 2/3],of the people you meet every day are pure ,,45bc7890,,,and they don't care about their neighbors,,,so,,its best not to have any close,,,and keep a gun handy,,,,roofing nails are even better,sometimes,,,get the shorter ones,,and go heavy,,,thingy

markct · Oct 30, 2004

( burn trash? Where do you think trash goes when you burn it? It's not just gone. It's air pollution )

i know its a little different, but alot of trash goes to an incinerator anyhow, so one way or another it gets burned, i wouldnt burn anything like plastics or that sorta stuff, but cardboard paper are products of wood, so its no different than burning wood in your fireplace,campfire ring etc, and do you realize that what isnt burned goes to landfills, so theres another environmental problem, no clean cut way around trash, but i dont see anything wrong with burning wood or wood pulp products, of course im not a tree hugger so i imagine a tree hugger will be worked up over my post, but thats why its a free country and we can say what we like