Garden waste - burn or shred?
Discussion
Even the slightest breeze will ensure that your neighbour’s house/car has a nice covering of soot. If their windows are open then some will go inside and they’ll also have the pleasure of having to breathe in a nice acrid smell for a few hours.
For ours we shred and put in the garden waste for the Council to take away.
For ours we shred and put in the garden waste for the Council to take away.
dhutch said:
Don't have a bonfire on your lawn, it will not regrow for years, the ash changes the ground etc.
What are you burning ?My huge fires move around as frankly I CBA moving large quantities of hedge cuttings hundreds of yards.
It certainly regrows within a year , smaller fires within a few weeks
Alucidnation said:
Yes, burning is a brilliant idea, and will almost guarantee pissing off your neighbours.
OP must be one of my neighbours who is new to the street. Too stingy to pay the council for a green waste been, too lazy to drip feed into the black bin, and doesn't own a car (the weirdo!) so can't go to the tip. Was burning every week in summer when everyone has washing out and windows open Had to have a polite word. His wife answered the door unfortunately/fortunately.
dhutch said:
Interesting.
Obviously with a large enough fire will barely notice a garden hose on it, much better to have it a good distance from anything flammable and control it by the rate of adding fuel. IE don't set fire to a pile wood and hope for the best, light a small fire and then add material bit at a time.
That said, if it does start spreading out a bit, better to have a hose ready than have to set it up by which time its likely got to far.
Very good advice! I removed all the previous owner's built-in chipboard cupboards, wardrobes and carpet from one of my bedrooms when I was redecorating and ended up with a massive pile of stuff to get rid of. In hindsight I could have probably sold the wood to wood-burner types but I didn't think of that at the time and decided a bonfire would be the best solution Obviously with a large enough fire will barely notice a garden hose on it, much better to have it a good distance from anything flammable and control it by the rate of adding fuel. IE don't set fire to a pile wood and hope for the best, light a small fire and then add material bit at a time.
That said, if it does start spreading out a bit, better to have a hose ready than have to set it up by which time its likely got to far.
.It was an autumn evening and the ground was fairly wet so I was having quite some trouble getting it started but eventually it 'caught' but it was taking far too long to get going and I didn't have all day to wait so I dumped the bedroom carpet on it and also a couple of large chipboard side panels. For reference, this was an ex-LA 2 bed semi with a back garden approx 40' wide by 50' long, bounded by hawthorn hedge on 2 sides and the dividing wooden fence with the neighbour's garden on the other.
Within 2 mins of dumping on the carpet the frames were past the upstairs windows of my house and the heat was so intense that I couldn't even stand anywhere in the back garden 25' away from the fire
. My house uPVC window frames and guttering was all cracking from the heat and the fence with the neighbour was smoking. Luckily I had an outside hosepipe on the wall and was able to douse the fence from where I was to stop it from catching alight (the neighbours were away on holiday) but my window frames and guttering was doomed and I was left with big melted droops in the guttering rendering it useless and the downstairs uPVC window sills for the lounge and kitchen were a mangled mess of plastic. The fire was that big that I had drivers on the main road outside stopping and coming in to see if someone had called the fire brigade because they thought the whole house was on fire! Naturally I calmly informed then that I had it all fully under control and there was nothing to worry about 
but the truth was that I'd created a monster and I was bricking it quite hard. Fortunately it didn't get any worse and after a while it simmered down to a more manageable size.Caution advised!
The Mad Monk said:
You do realise that it was meant as a joke, don't you? (That's J O K E, a remark intended to be humorous) I am sorry I didn't surround it with emojis, or whatever they are called, but I thought it wouldn't have to be spelled out.
Oh sorry, you mean joke as in hilarious (H I L A R I O U S ie extremely funny, causing a lot of laughter). In fact so amusing I will use the anecdote twice for additional hilarity. I am also sorry you did not use emoji. Perhaps just use the proword 'joke' next time and it will be crystal clear. Sometimes it just requires iteration and the key is always timing.
Whatever house you live in, environmentally it must always be better to shred or take or get it taken away and not send smoke up for no good reason, neighbours or otherwise.Failing that large amounts are usually directly proportional to garden size (there are always exceptions) and so can surely be left in some small corner to decompose naturally - the thicker branches can always be pulled out later.
Pip
Ps MM, I am teasing.
V8RX7 said:
I wonder why fly tipping is increasing...
Mainly because as well as permits for vans, which often scuppers people with defenders/mpvs etc as well, most public 'waste centres' now charge for basically everything.My local wanted a tenner for half a boot full of fairly innocuous items that would all have fitted into a wheelie bin when I was emptying my house to move, Half a gravel board was £3, as was a 'bag for life sized' amount of of hard core, and piece of plasterboard about 2ftx 3ft. I left them neatly in the garage for the new owner.
Daniel
It certainly makes no sense to charge for domestic waste. A blanket charge should just be buried within the council tax so that everyone pays and everyone can use the tip as much as they want.
The system worked better when the tips were paid by all households and the workers employed by the council and allowed to fiddle whatever they wanted. Outsourcing and PAYG has not benefited the wider society.
Proper deterants for fly-tipping wouldn’t go amiss. Removal of benefits and the implementation of a higher tax code.
The system worked better when the tips were paid by all households and the workers employed by the council and allowed to fiddle whatever they wanted. Outsourcing and PAYG has not benefited the wider society.
Proper deterants for fly-tipping wouldn’t go amiss. Removal of benefits and the implementation of a higher tax code.
dhutch said:
Mainly because as well as permits for vans, which often scuppers people with defenders/mpvs etc as well, most public 'waste centres' now charge for basically everything.
My local wanted a tenner for half a boot full of fairly innocuous items that would all have fitted into a wheelie bin when I was emptying my house to move, Half a gravel board was £3, as was a 'bag for life sized' amount of of hard core, and piece of plasterboard about 2ftx 3ft. I left them neatly in the garage for the new owner.
Daniel
My local tip wanted to charge me £3 each for three double glazed units that I'd replaced due to blown seals, which were in amongst the boot full of stuff I was getting rid of. I just took them home, smashed them up and put it in the recycling bin!!My local wanted a tenner for half a boot full of fairly innocuous items that would all have fitted into a wheelie bin when I was emptying my house to move, Half a gravel board was £3, as was a 'bag for life sized' amount of of hard core, and piece of plasterboard about 2ftx 3ft. I left them neatly in the garage for the new owner.
Daniel
The new charging system just encourages fly tipping or the hiding of potentially hazardous stuff in the general black bin. Typical short sighted Local Council thinking.
MarcoD said:
My local tip wanted to charge me £3 each for three double glazed units that I'd replaced due to blown seals, which were in amongst the boot full of stuff I was getting rid of. I just took them home, smashed them up and put it in the recycling bin!!
The new charging system just encourages fly tipping or the hiding of potentially hazardous stuff in the general black bin. Typical short sighted Local Council thinking.
My local council sounds like yours, if you want to enter the local tip with a van or trailor you need to apply for a licence from the council, this is free and entitles you 12 entries in a 12 month period, not only that they have also reduced the type of waste you can tip and in their best wisdom someone decided that garden waste needs to be put in a large skip which requires you to walk up a flight of steps, if you don't know this putting garden waste in anything but smallish bags you will struggle.The new charging system just encourages fly tipping or the hiding of potentially hazardous stuff in the general black bin. Typical short sighted Local Council thinking.
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