Dumping garbage/used materials

[mbosma]

Hi all,

Just wondered what your opinions and practices are. I spent the day yesterday pulling rolls of old wire fence and barbed wire out of a valley in our woods. Got about 3 big rolls, plus a thousand small pieces just big enough to cut tires, feet and hoves. I'm sure that back in the 50s when they dumped it there (along with some old car parts) that they never thought anyone would care. But now it's close to my home where the kids play and where the pigs will be kept next year.

While I worked, I sure was thinking that they caused me a lot of trouble by being lazy. Does anyone throw stuff away on their property? If you do, realize that you won't own it forever, and that someday someone will pick up your mess. It's a lot easier to dispose of it properly the first time, vs. digging it up half burried later.

 

[forgeblast]

Metal (since my truck died) goes on the side of the road with a free to good home sign. Its normally gone in a few hours. Wood products are burned, and the rest bagged for garbage. That being said i do find litter from others up and down our road.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

save that wire and metal for your next concrete job.
Rick

 

[jinman]

Many forms of trash won't burn, are too big to be put into trash cans, and cannot be recycled. This includes lots of building materials: bricks, concrete, etc. Old wire is also something that is a pain to deal with since it is normally rusty and a cut would be nasty. If you live out in the country, you may have little resources for getting rid of these kinds of items. I think if you dig a big pit and bury those materials, it doesn't hurt a thing. Putting them into a pile in the woods is dangerous and sure to shortly be a mess, but burying is something I do and can live with. I select my burial site carefully to prevent water from eroding or carrying contaminants into streams and lakes. Now that I own a full-sized loader-backhoe, this job is a lot easier.

Several years ago I pulled a rusty 5-wire barbed wire fence out of my woods. Lots of trees were dead from the wire being wrapped around them probably 50 years ago. I wouldn't take a chance on cutting with a chainsaw, so I rolled up that old rusty wire and pushed the trees into a pit along with the wire. It's no longer on the surface and if someone ever excavates my land, they will find about four isolated places with burial pits.

 

[s78wingrider]

Don't forget, any metal can be sold for scrap. In this area it is fairly high right now. Price goes up and down.

 

[mbosma]

This load is going straight to the scrap yard. Maybe I'll get enough cash to pay for my gas.

There are plenty more rolls of fencing where this came from for my next concrete job, some are still mostly intact. I also plan to build more tomato cages and bean trellises when time allows. I'll pull them out as needed

We burried a few things during a kitchen remodel to save a trip to the dump. Big hole, burn what will in it, then cover it up. As long as it's not close to the creek I think it'll be fine. I just don't want it laying around where we walk/work.

 

[Jimbrown]

Well 50 60 years ago there were no land fills like exist tiday. Old wire and cars were worthless. Lots of us threw the stuff into gullies to get rid of it and to act as some type of erosion control. There simply was no other economical way to deal with it. We have a similar thing around here with open mine shafts. Most are 50 to 100ft deep. They were dug and abondanoned. Are they dangerous you bet is anyone going to fill them in? Not likely.

 

[dmccarty]

What Jim said. :thumbsup:

The farm I worked on as a good had been at least two different parcels of land before being merged. The guy that owned it would dump trash and I do mean trash down in a gulley near a barn. No trash pick up out there. No he could have taken the trash home since we would work on the farm a couple of days then go home to the city. But I think he was doing what the previous owners had done.

I was walking on some trails at my kids school a while back. The trail is on land that I am guessing was clear cut 15-20 years ago. Way back in time some one lived out in those woods because the trail goes across some ones trash heap that was sorta kinda buried. Glass and pieces of metal are on the surface. Just no other way to get rid of it back in the day.

Now the modern day trash dumpers are a different critter.

Later,
Dan

 

[gauthier]

Well,to each his own,,free country,etc. Very true,we are all just living on a spot of land for a short while,and someone else will live there sometime in future,but they can make it as they wish when they own it,just like I am making it as I wish now

I got a metal/other things dump,not garbage,,it was started before I bought this place and I have continued it:laughing:

 

[CompactTractorFan]

When we moved here we had one of those above-grounds dumps on the property...Had to have my uncle come in and haul it away...

 

[clemsonfor]

Hi all,

Just wondered what your opinions and practices are. I spent the day yesterday pulling rolls of old wire fence and barbed wire out of a valley in our woods. Got about 3 big rolls, plus a thousand small pieces just big enough to cut tires, feet and hoves. I'm sure that back in the 50s when they dumped it there (along with some old car parts) that they never thought anyone would care. But now it's close to my home where the kids play and where the pigs will be kept next year.

While I worked, I sure was thinking that they caused me a lot of trouble by being lazy. Does anyone throw stuff away on their property? If you do, realize that you won't own it forever, and that someday someone will pick up your mess. It's a lot easier to dispose of it properly the first time, vs. digging it up half burried later.

Jim said exactly what i was thinking. At the time you estimate that pile to have been put there, there was no trash pickup and the dump was proably not existant or far away. My land (which has been in the family for well over 100 years) has a couple piles on it. There was no way to get rid of glass and metal it would not burn. You were not wasting your few dollars to drive it to the city dump? It was thrown in or around a gully. My dad did not have an indoor bathroom till he was almost 14 power was not even availible in the area till the 50's. This is the same time period your worried about the folks not driving their trash 20 miles to the dump to get rid of it. My ancestors were worried about the next meal and keeping warm, not where there cans, carparts and glass jars were being thrown.

That said i take all my trash to the dump, i even recycle what i can. Were in a different time period and that is just part of our history.

 

[brin]

Here's the thing....I believe you should be able to do as you please with your land , I know that is what I do. With that said, here in Georgia when you sell your property you have to complete a property discolosure and give it to the buyer and one of the questions is.." Are there any burial pits on the property " If you answer no and there are and the buyer finds them he can sue and maybe nullify the sale or at least get damages.

Bottom line advice is if you are going to bury anything on your property it would be a good idea to check the laws in your state and see what the disclosure requirements are at the time of sale....or else you can gamble that they won't ever find it and dig a really deep hole..

 

[tungularafishcamp]

My land was a remote cannery at the turn of the century, the ocean was the garbage dump then, and my kids are always bring stuff in from low tide trips like coke bottles from the 1800's and such. So what was garbage for them is now a minitreasure for others. Best watch out that some junk artist finds out about your dumps and digs them up.:laughing:
Rick

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I remember when the town dump was still open, you just dumped stuff over the side of the hill... wasn't that long ago, almost all towns had one.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

I remember when the town dump was still open, you just dumped stuff over the side of the hill... wasn't that long ago, almost all towns had one.

Things sure are different these days...

 

[tungularafishcamp]

I miss the old Navy/Coast Guard dump, you wouldn't believe all the great stuff they used to throw away. Brand new stuff as well as used sad day for Kodiak when they closed it down to civilians for pagooking.:thumbdown:

 

[rtimgray]

The scrap recyclers in out area won't take fencing wire, woven wire, barbed wire, chain link fence, etc. They say that is clogs up the shredders that they send it to.

Do you other guys that haul off scrap metal have any problems getting rid of it in your area?

Thanks.

 

[mbosma]

The scrap recyclers in out area won't take fencing wire, woven wire, barbed wire, chain link fence, etc. They say that is clogs up the shredders that they send it to.

Do you other guys that haul off scrap metal have any problems getting rid of it in your area?

Thanks.

My local place took the fencing and barbed wire strands without question. They categorized it as bailing, and was priced at $145 per ton! unfortunatly I only had a couple hundred pounds.

 

[clemsonfor]

My land was a remote cannery at the turn of the century, the ocean was the garbage dump then, and my kids are always bring stuff in from low tide trips like coke bottles from the 1800's and such. So what was garbage for them is now a minitreasure for others. Best watch out that some junk artist finds out about your dumps and digs them up.:laughing:
Rick

i dont think there was coke bottles in the 1800's? I come from a family that has a heritage associated with coke. My moms side use to own a coke bottling and distribution plant here in SC so i know a little more but and no expert by far. I never met Pop, my great grandfater who ran the plant but have heard stories.

Ok i just looked it up. Coke was invented in 1886 and appeared in soda shops and drugstores soda foutains then and untill 1905 when the first glass bottle was used.

 

[clemsonfor]

My local place took the fencing and barbed wire strands without question. They categorized it as bailing, and was priced at $145 per ton! unfortunatly I only had a couple hundred pounds.

Thats lower price than just scrap steel at $8-10/100. But at least they took it.