Burning Timber

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 Bojo 15 Jan 2022

I'm about to demolish an old timber garden shed. Over the course of about fifteen years it has received several coats of water based paint.

I can understand that there are perhaps problems in burning old timber that has received oil based paint but does anyone know of any restrictions in the case of water based paints.

It's earmarked for a wood burner.

Thanks.

5
 Pedro50 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

Conscious of the concerns over wood burners I only burn seasoned hardwood logs. I make no judgement on your decision. 

Post edited at 20:23
OP Bojo 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Pedro50:

> Conscious of the concerns over wood burners I only burn seasoned hardwood logs. I make no judgement on your decision. 

I imagine it's well and truly seasoned

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 Pedro50 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

Yes but it's painted. I have no idea if burning water based paint is bad for the environment or your flue.

Post edited at 20:29
OP Bojo 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Pedro50:

The alternative seems to be for me to line the pockets of the local council - and they wonder why people fly-tip.

26
 Dark-Cloud 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Pedro50:

I just use that sort of stuff as kindling and to get a good bed of ash going before putting seasoned hardwood on it.

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 Pedro50 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

> The alternative seems to be for me to line the pockets of the local council - and they wonder why people fly-tip.

Surely local council waste/recycling centres take wood for nothing, mine does. My entire rotten treated decking went there rather than my stove.

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 Pedro50 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Dark-Cloud:

> I just use that sort of stuff as kindling and to get a good bed of ash going before putting seasoned hardwood on it.

So better to burn it early rather than when the stove's up to temperature? 

OP Bojo 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Pedro50:

> Surely local council waste/recycling centres take wood for nothing, mine does.

Not ours

Apparently it would be classed as "industrial waste"

Post edited at 20:52
 Maggot 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Pedro50:

> Surely local council waste/recycling centres take wood for nothing, mine does. My entire rotten treated decking went there rather than my stove.

They want clean wood for recycling, painted rotten stuff would get directed to the general/landfill skip here in Manchester

In reply to Bojo:

I would avoid it personally but I'm picky with what I burn, especially if it might annoy anyone. I would think any painted wood, especially waterproof outdoor stuff, is not good and will probably stink, plus it might be damp from being outside, which is very bad.

Post edited at 21:04
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 Pedro50 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Maggot:

> They want clean wood for recycling, painted rotten stuff would get directed to the general/landfill skip here in Manchester

I always find going to the tip nerve-racking. Will they accept it? Four trips with the contents of my late mother's house and garage proved that politeness and a humble attitude can pay dividends. 

1
 Timmd 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

Do you have the room to break it up in to small enough chunks for your wheelie bin, and gradually get rid of it like that?

Post edited at 22:10
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 flatlandrich 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

What TheDrunkerBakers said above is correct so I'd avoid it for those reasons alone.

More importantly the timber will have been pressure treated with wood preserver before it was built. (I'm assuming it is a bought, factory made shed?) These preservers can contain toxic heavy metals that don't get hot enough to burn away and so are left in the ash residue or given off in the smoke. 

Also burning treated timber is illegal, at least commercially, I'm not sure about domestically. 

I'm surprised the shed you describe would be classed as "industrial waste" if it was in your own garden but local council rules do vary across the country. My local tip would take it, no questions asked.   

 Sean_J 15 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

Put an advert on Facebook - "FREE SHED (buyer to remove)". I did that with mine and it went within minutes! Although mine was reasonably structurally sound I must admit, but I would have taken it to the tip if there were no takers.

In reply to Sean_J:

Thiis ^ but put a nominal price on it, I have struggled to give stuff away which has gone in minutes with a price attached.

Win win, she'd gone and a few quid for you. 

 Dax H 16 Jan 2022
In reply to Sean_J:

Did that with a greenhouse, put it on the local Facebook community page and 2 guys turned up, took it down and away. 

 CantClimbTom 16 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

Some people here may be lucky to live where local authorities still freely accept all kinds of domestic and garden waste, sadly that's no longer everywhere . Where I live they don't accept tiles, porcelain, plaster, rubble hard core, timber, certain furniture and we're supposed to just hire a skip for anything like that (have you seen skip prices over the last 2 years?)

I'd try everything to freebies recycle/repurpose/gum-tree the shed. Failing that, it's fuel...

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OP Bojo 16 Jan 2022

Thanks all. Think I'll try advertising on ebay/gumtree for nominal cost of maybe £1

 GrahamD 16 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

> Not ours

> Apparently it would be classed as "industrial waste"

Is that the waste itself, or do you have a van or large trailer ?

In reply to CantClimbTom:

> Some people here may be lucky to live where local authorities still freely accept all kinds of domestic and garden waste, sadly that's no longer everywhere . Where I live they don't accept tiles, porcelain, plaster, rubble hard core, timber, certain furniture and we're supposed to just hire a skip for anything like that (have you seen skip prices over the last 2 years?)

> I'd try everything to freebies recycle/repurpose/gum-tree the shed. Failing that, it's fuel...

Yeah, a lot of people near me burn any old crap which really stinks and gets in the throat.

Not only are they being pillocks for not properly disposing of THEIR dometic waste, they are also massively polluting and adding to the increasing calls for burners and open fires to be banned which will spoil it for those of us who burn well seasoned hardwood only, which is far for perfect itself we now know. Much better than painted wood though.

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 oldie 16 Jan 2022
In reply to flatlandrich:

> More importantly the timber will have been pressure treated with wood preserver before it was built. (I'm assuming it is a bought, factory made shed?) These preservers can contain toxic heavy metals that don't get hot enough to burn away and so are left in the ash residue or given off in the smoke.  Also burning treated timber is illegal, at least commercially, I'm not sure about domestically. <

Agree with not burning painted wood, I don't know but presume the paint is plastic type material.

In a thread on here it was mentioned that a large % of  timber waste is now burnt for energy. But how do they know if its been treated or not? They can't do a chemical analysis of everything. Commercially treated timber (presumably used for all structural work) may not show signs of treatment: do they really not burn any timber from demolition of buildings built comparatively recently? There's quite a lot of old timber that's been sprayed against rot....again showing no evidence of the treatment.

OP Bojo 16 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

All this begs the question: If it can't be burned domestically I have to take it to the council dump and pay £30-£50 for the "privilege" not to mention the cost(environmentally and otherwise) of taking it there. What then do the council do with it? I cannot believe that they won't sell it on to a third party(win-win for the council) who will probably burn it anyway or subject it to some other environmentall unfriendly process.

 CantClimbTom 16 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

Sometimes it's shredded, mixed with the green waste and composted, not always burned. If it gets too wet and anaerobic it can release methane, so if done badly burning for heating or energy *might* be a lesser evil? It depends

I'm definitely fed up with all the builders and developers who burn stuff in the garden or even in front of the house, it's becoming common round my way

Post edited at 13:40
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 flatlandrich 16 Jan 2022
In reply to oldie:

I think the 'timber waste' you're referring to is more 'vegetation', ie wood chip from tree felling/pruning operations that has no other commercial value, specifically to produce renewable electricity. But we do have incineration plants that burn domestic waste, with some also producing electricity as well. As these burn all manner of waste, including plastics, the emissions must be heavily filtered and purified. Both of these would be highly regulated and licensed by the environment agency so my comment should perhaps have read, 'the unlicensed burning of treated timber is illegal'  

 jimtitt 16 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

It should be going to an incineration plant, burnt at high temperature and the heavy metals etc filtered out. The one near me is a combined heat/ power plant. There again I live in Germany!

There's one near Salzburg specifically built to dispose of railway sleepers and telephone poles.

 flatlandrich 16 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

Getting rid of waste is always going to incur some kind of cost. Someone has got to deal with it some point. Transporting and processing it has fuel, labor and machinery costs. If you do pay to take it to the local tip it'll probably either be incinerated in a highly regulated way, which the council will have to pay for, or end up as land fill for which there are very heavy taxes. Why shouldn't the producers of the waste pay the cost of getting rid of it?   

 oldie 16 Jan 2022
In reply to flatlandrich:

> I think the 'timber waste' you're referring to is more 'vegetation', ie wood chip from tree felling/pruning operations that has no other commercial value, specifically to produce renewable electricity. <

Out of interest just googled following. I'm not sure I believe all the figures though, I imagine much unrecorded timber goes to landfill.

In 2020 the UK generated around 4.5 million tonnes of waste wood. This wood comes from a number of different sectors, including construction, demolition, manufacturing and wood processing........in 2020 around 4 million tonnes of waste wood was recycled........the majority (around 65%) of wood that is diverted by what we call the high-volume wood recycling industry is not reused, but chipped and burnt in power stations to produce low-carbon electricity.  https://communitywoodrecycling.org.uk/what-we-do/waste-wood-in-the-uk

 oldie 16 Jan 2022
In reply to flatlandrich:

> Why shouldn't the producers of the waste pay the cost of getting rid of it?   <

One reason may be that unfortunately if there isn't a free option it encourages many to fly tip or get rid of more stuff hidden in their normal landfill collection bags. Domestic council tax covers costs to the council. I imagine large amounts of building waste are charged for anyway by most or all councils.

Post edited at 16:04
 Bingers 16 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

My solution would be what I do with my neighbours old fences if I can manage to scrounge them, which is to break them up and burn them in the firepit little by little on nice summers whilst having a beer and looking at the stars.

I don't want them in the wood burner, I don't want them on the BBQ, but smallish amounts at a time  when I would have been having a fire anyway.

Just one thing Bojo, don't invite the colleagues around for a chat about "work".  It'll only end in tears.

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 Godwin 16 Jan 2022
In reply to oldie:

> One reason may be that unfortunately if there isn't a free option it encourages many to fly tip or get rid of more stuff hidden in their normal landfill collection bags. Domestic council tax covers costs to the council. I imagine large amounts of building waste are charged for anyway by most or all councils.

There isn't a free option, for disposing of waste, someone, somewhere is paying. People should be made more responsible for the costs of disposing of waste, then it may may make them more aware of their buying choices, if they have to pay to get rid of stuff, to make room for the stuff they are buying.
Fly tipping is I believe rarely prosecuted, possibly thats part of the problem.
I increasingly think that the word "consumer" which people wear as a badge of pride and entitlement, should be a term of shame. The world cannot cope with the amount of shite we "consume", its unsustainable.

In reply to Bojo:

 Just store it all up until November 5 th  you’ve got the annual free for all then  plastic paint rubber mattresses people of different religions old sofa  car  tires  

OP Bojo 20 Jan 2022

Shed demolished, timber disposed of, topic closed😁

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 Toccata 20 Jan 2022
In reply to Name Changed 34:

Our local 'recycling' and waste disposal company have a massive Nov 5th bonfire every year (over 10m high and 40m wide) to which there is little community involvement. Can't imagine it has anything to do with cheaply disposing of wood.

 neilh 20 Jan 2022
In reply to Bojo:

How well do you get on with your neighbours?

1
 gethin_allen 20 Jan 2022
In reply to Bingers:

Surely better burnt in the wood burner if anywhere at all. At least the wood burner has higher temperatures and a good sealed flue so that any dodgy emissions are released high up and away from you. 

1

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