AITA - burning wood in the garden edition

[Looby]

I could understand them being arsey if every time it was a nice day you lit a fire in your garden, but that's not the case. I think you've been more than considerate and they've been unreasonably arsey.

I think it's fair enough to give them a heads up and wait for them to go indoors. So long as you don't do it when they've just put their washing out or if they're hanging out in their garden. * Shrugs *

But it doesn’t just affect people in their gardens, it pours into houses too.
And it’s already been explained that the wood was likely treated and therefore, toxic.
So I’m confused why you can’t understand them being pissed off.

 

[keybored]

Apparently wood burners (the ones you had inside) produce more pollution in the uk than all road traffic.

Found that hard to belive so had a look around and wow, holy shit...

New wood burning stoves billed as more environmentally friendly still emit 750 times more tiny particle pollution than a modern HGV truck

At least 40 ,000 early deaths a year are attributed to wood burning in Europe.

Domestic wood burning is the single biggest source of PM2.5 air pollution in the UK, producing three times more pollution than road traffic.

‘Eco’ wood stoves emit 750 times more pollution than an HGV, study shows

Only ecodesign stoves can be legally sold from 2022 – but experts say the standard is shockingly weak

www.theguardian.com

 

[Looby]

It won’t be long before wood burners are banned.

 

[scifisam]

You know you can pay the council to take away bulky waste? It’s not much - probably cheaper than doing several car loads

I don’t have any neighbours next to my garden and I wouldn’t ever burn anything. It’s a warm bank holiday. People want to use their gardens and have their windows open.

A lot of councils won't take garden waste (apart from cuttings) - mine doesn't. It's really annoying given this is London, lots of people don't have cars or driving licences, and the dump is at the other end of the borough so it's not a short journey.

But I still wouldn't burn stuff in my garden, and my garden's a fair bit larger, with tall fences, and I don't have a car to take things to the dump at all. When I get my old shed taken down I'm going to have to pay extra for the workman to also dispose of the debris like I did with the old garden table and bench, or possibly try to get that and a couple of other things done at the same time and pay for a skip, which is one of the reasons I haven't got it done yet. Burning it in the garden would be shitty to my neighbours, so tough on me, I have to wait.

I have a chimenea (though TBF I barely use it) and my neighbour has a firepit, but they only use wood that's meant to be burnt and the gardens are big enough that it isn't a problem. The smoke is minor and you barely notice it at all. Burning an entire shed made of treated and painted wood definitely would be.

 

[WouldBe]

Often wish those brilliant machines that make useful attractive wood chippings out of garden waste were a bit more affordable.If you can't burn your garden waste at least with a chipper you can render down huge volumes of it to either use as mulch or otherwise pop in your green bin.They cost many hundreds of pounds though

£82 from B&Q. I used a similar much older one my dad has got. Easily handled the thinner bits of a 30 foot high plum tree I recently felled.

Don't think it would handle a shed though.

 

[WouldBe]

It won’t be long before wood burners are banned.

If so I hope the government or council are going to pay for a replacement heating system as I can't afford to replace mine if I wanted to.

 

[Duncan2]

I fully realise it's both because I am a bit of a yokel and also of a certain age but people throwing up their hands in horror at the thought that someone might have a bonfire is a development that I shall not live to become accustomed to.Its not hard to imagine the first man /woman coming up with the idea of setting fire to some wood in his yard and then leaping around like a dog with two tails thinking what a clever fellow he was.If he only knew - what he was really doing was bringing respiratory disease and global warming to the world and stinking up the washing of all his fellow troglodytes

 

[WouldBe]

You should have been around when everyone had coal fires.

 

[Sasaferrato]

You should have been around when everyone had coal fires.

I was. Steam trains too...

 

[danski]

I was. Steam trains too...

Everyone had steam trains?
How times have changed.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Or hire a Transit van

check the rules of the local council tip first - some require vans to be pre-booked and / or charge you as trade waste even if you just hire a van as a householder

A lot of councils won't take garden waste (apart from cuttings) - mine doesn't. It's really annoying given this is London, lots of people don't have cars or driving licences, and the dump is at the other end of the borough so it's not a short journey.

many councils charge an annual amount for a garden waste bin or so much for a roll of 10 garden waste bags. it's a bit shit if they don't at all.

and with council tips in quite a few areas, there's no pedestrian access - if you don't have / drive a vehicle, you can't go, even if it is somewhere vaguely convenient. which is even more shit.

You should have been around when everyone had coal fires.

I was. Steam trains too...

and industry, power generation and town gas production all being largely coal fired.

these (from london, 1952) came up on tweeter this week

 

[WouldBe]

these (from london, 1952) came up on tweeter this week

An occasional garden fire hardly compares to what things were like back then.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

An occasional garden fire hardly compares to what things were like back then.

don't think i was suggesting it does. i was responding to this post from, er, you...

You should have been around when everyone had coal fires.

 

[WouldBe]

don't think i was suggesting it does. i was responding to this post from, er, you...

I know. I just think some people are being a bit sensitive to an odd garden fire.

 

[Sasaferrato]

check the rules of the local council tip first - some require vans to be pre-booked and / or charge you as trade waste even if you just hire a van as a householder



many councils charge an annual amount for a garden waste bin or so much for a roll of 10 garden waste bags. it's a bit shit if they don't at all.

and with council tips in quite a few areas, there's no pedestrian access - if you don't have / drive a vehicle, you can't go, even if it is somewhere vaguely convenient. which is even more shit.





and industry, power generation and town gas production all being largely coal fired.

these (from london, 1952) came up on tweeter this week

That's he year I was born. Grew up in the Islands, very clean air.

 

[Red Cat]

I know. I just think some people are being a bit sensitive to an odd garden fire.

And everyone has explained why. They have a small garden, its treated wood, its a huge shed, its a bank holiday weekend when people are using their gardens in a dense urban environment.

 

[scifisam]

check the rules of the local council tip first - some require vans to be pre-booked and / or charge you as trade waste even if you just hire a van as a householder



many councils charge an annual amount for a garden waste bin or so much for a roll of 10 garden waste bags. it's a bit shit if they don't at all.

and with council tips in quite a few areas, there's no pedestrian access - if you don't have / drive a vehicle, you can't go, even if it is somewhere vaguely convenient. which is even more shit.





and industry, power generation and town gas production all being largely coal fired.

these (from london, 1952) came up on tweeter this week

It council takes the stuff that can go in green bags (I meant cuttings to be shorthand for that). They don't take old sheds, greenhouses, garden furniture, swings or anything that was in a garden, not even as a bulk collection.

 

[A380]

I burnt my last wooden shed - pre Covid. I knocked on the neighbours three doors up one side and two the other to make sure they weren't having BBQs or putting the washing out. I didn't worry about the ones behind us as they are antisocial cunts.

ETA I only have one neighbour at the back because of the way the gardens go. I don’t live next to an entire road of wankers…

 

[WouldBe]

And everyone has explained why. They have a small garden, its treated wood, its a huge shed, its a bank holiday weekend when people are using their gardens in a dense urban environment.

How old was the shed? It could have been treated with creosote which doesn't contain arsenic compounds.

Cloo should have claimed it was a jubilee beacon.

 

[gentlegreen]

I came very close to burning stuff in my garden and my immediate neighbour has been egging me on only recently to burn stuff that can easily go in a green bin once I get myself organised - £50 for a bin plus 25 collections.
But in the end I had to haul a whole concrete building through the house anyway so needed an 8 yard skip for concrete blocks, foundation, rotten fence posts and bamboo stumps - cost £400

I still have a lot of wood to get rid of after 38 years here ...

 

[Duncan2]

I came very close to burning stuff in my garden and my immediate neighbour has been egging me on only recently to burn stuff that can easily go in a green bin once I get myself organised - £50 for a bin plus 25 collections.
But in the end I had to haul a whole concrete building through the house anyway so needed an 8 yard skip for concrete blocks, foundation, rotten fence posts and bamboo stumps - cost £400

I still have a lot of wood to get rid of after 38 years here ...

View attachment 325677

No doubt it's better that all that Creosote end up in the water we drink rather than the air we breathe

 

[gentlegreen]

No doubt it's better that all that Creosote end up in the water we drink rather than the air we breathe

it would be copper and perhaps arsenic ...
The chances are in Bristol, the wood may go to a power plant in any case ...

 

[Steel Icarus]

Get a skip and smash it up. I just hired a four yarder for £150 for a week.

 

[platinumsage]

No doubt it's better that all that Creosote end up in the water we drink rather than the air we breathe

Why would it end up in the water? Landfill sites are highly regulated and monitored, as is the water supply, and municipal waste incinerators for that matter. Not comparable at all to burning it unchecked in your neighborhood.

 

[maomao]

How old was the shed? It could have been treated with creosote which doesn't contain arsenic compounds.

Cloo should have claimed it was a jubilee beacon.

Untreated wood also contains carcinogens. You can say it's just the 'odd' garden fire and roll your eyes all you like, wood burning in private homes and gardens is the single biggest source of small particle air pollution in the UK. And yes they did burn a lot more wood in the past but they also had much shorter lifespans and much higher rates of lung disease.

 

[Duncan2]

Why would it end up in the water? Landfill sites are highly regulated and monitored, as is the water supply, and municipal waste incinerators for that matter. Not comparable at all to burning it unchecked in your neighborhood.

Don't claim to know about this in any detail platinum sage doubtless our drinking water coming from the reservoir has been checked over but I live in an area of huge subterranean pockets of sand and gravel much if which in recent decades has been replaced with landfill.You can tell me that toxins don't end up in our rivers and streams but forgive me if I don't entirely believe you.

 

[platinumsage]

Well, it's exactly like homeopathy in terms of effects in both space and time.

 

[Cloo]

Get a skip and smash it up. I just hired a four yarder for £150 for a week.

It's already smashed up. We've taken two loads to the dump now, which is tiring but much quicker than burning and doesn't piss anyone else off. Neighbours have accepted our apologies, which is the most important bit because I have concluded WWTA

 

[rubbershoes]

Inspired by this thread I've just burnt a massive heap of eucalyptus leaves from the tree that came down in the storm a few months ago.

It produced loads of smoke but at least it smelt nice

 

[Cloo]

Still got quite a lot of shed to go, even though we're impressed by how much one burning and two carloads has got out.

Photo with bonus grumpy cat: