empty barrel

anyone know where i could get an empty barrel to burn some stuff in the garden?

This is surely a test!

You cannot burn anything in a barrel!
You cannot burn anything in a garden!
You cannot burn anything!

Hi ANC, don't know where you live, but I think in general County Councils around the country frown on burning rubbish in your back garden - 'The burning of waste can be an offence under the Air Pollution Act 1987' and I think they may fine you if someone reports it.

i live in dublin city council area and i though you couldn't burn anything in the garden until i came across this FAQ on the dublin city council website

[broken link removed]

"Is it legal to burn domestic waste? #5507
It is not illegal to burn domestic waste but it is illegal to cause a nuisance. Complaints about burning domestic waste should be referred to the Air Quality Monitoring and Noise Control District Environmental Health Officer who will investigate the matter. An information leaflet is available regarding burning."

I used the BBQ to destroy some letters,

My parents gave some packaging waste to a biulder who was working on a site near them and he burned it for them on site?

thanks G7979.

what i need to burn is a load of wooden floorboards that we replaced as they had woodworm & some bushes we cut down in the garden.

i was hoping to cut it up into 2 or 3 foot pieces and burn in a barrel.

it would be too much stuff to ask anyone else to burn for me, i was going to do it myself gradually over the course of a few weeks.

by the way was the builder burning stuff in a barrel in the garden? was this in dublin?

Why don't you chop up the boards a bit and offer them to somebody (maybe an older person) in your area who would appreciate them for firewood in the Winter?

hi ophelia.

i could do that i suppose but i'd need to cut them up fairly small and would probably need a chainsaw or else it would be very time consuming & with some nails still in the wood it could be dangerous.

i was hoping to cut the wood into pieces about a yard long and burn them in a barrel.

so do people think that i can burn stuff in a barrel or not?

the link from the Dublin City Council website i showed earlier seems to suggest i can as long as i don't cause a nuisance (i suppose this would be if the smoke was blowing onto someones clothesline..)

I'd imagine it's not just clotheslines you'd need to worry about.

Do you have neighbours? Close by?
If my nextdor neighbour was burning stuff in his back garden and the smell and smoke was coming into my garden or house I'd be fairly quick about calling the council/asking him what the hell he was playing at!

It's not exactly neighbourly.

I live back to back with a garage and the owner used to have a penchant for burning tyres!!!!! He got the sharp end of my tongue a few times, he hasn't done it or years now.
ANC, I still think that if u were to get a good axe, a few friends, goggles all round and a claw hammer to remove the nails you would have the lot done in half a day. Some old person would love you too!!

If the timber has been treated with chemicals (pressure treated), it may give off potentially harmful fumes - either to you burning in the back garden or to anyone using it as fuel in their home.

We replaced some old fencing recently and thought we were on to a good thing with free firewood - we were advised not to burn it either outside or in the house for this reason.

I don't think internal timber floorboards would have been treated with creosote or the like (a bit sticky on the feet!!) However varnish and the like may have been used or God knows even lead infested paint.

When you got your new wheelie bin what did you do with your old bin? If it was metal you could punch a few holes in it, put it on a couple of cement blocks and away you go.
You could dig a hole in the garden and bury the stuff or build a tunnell under the local bank vault or open a skateboard park or.....

hi everyone, thanks for the replies.

gabriel, yes i have neighbours each side of me but my garden is about 50 yards long so i was thinking if i went down about half way it shouldn't really be interfering with anyone else.

ophelia, that's a good idea for the floorboards. i wouldn't say they have been treated with anything, the house was built around 50 years ago and i'd say these boards were there from the start. they were covered with lino when we bought the house so i wouldn't imagine they were varnished or anything.

what can i do with the bushes though? they'd be a nightmare to cut up small enough for bagging.

WaterWater, good idea but i'm only in the house a year and have only a black & green bin.

by the way the reason i'm trying to burn up the wooden stuff is that the house we bought last year has a 50 yards long garden and only about 10 yards was used by the old lady who lived there previous to us. the rest of the garden had been used as a dumping ground over the years by any neighbours who could access it....
this meant that to clear the garden we've had to get rid of everything from car bumpers to several kitchen sinks, fridges, washing machines, cookers, shopping trolleys, mattresses, bicycles, lawnmowers, broken glass, carpets etc. etc.

i thought (since it appears to be legal according to the Dublin City Council website) that at least if i burned the wooden stuff it would save getting a second or third skip.

best bet might be to just half them, into the car and bring them to the dump?

If you have a lot of bushes etc. you could hire (or buy) a garden shredder and chip the lot. This can then be composted or easily bagged for disposal. As for the floor boards, it's extremely unlikely these have been treated with any preservative chemicals. Are they clean? If you are sure the timber is not worth salvaging for reuse you could put a small notice in your local shop saying "clean dry floorboards would make good firewood- free to first caller!" People cannot resist something for free! you should be able to recycle the steel waste (bicycle/ trolley etc) for free if you can organise a way of getting it to a depot...

ANC,

I hate to hear of anyone burning or disposing of materials that can be recycled so easily.

Here's my suggestion. Given you appear to live in Dublin, you may not be aware but there are a number of civic amenity centres which accept wooden materials (i.e., the floorboards you suggest), in addition to garden waste. The civic amenity centre in Ballymount Industrial Estate (Tallaght) is just one such centre (they're open also on Saturdays). Here's an example of the materials they accept:
Materials Accepted

• Electrical appliances
• Computer Equipment
• White Goods (Fridges, Washing Machines, etc)
• Household Hazardous Waste (Paint, Detergents, Pesticide containers, etc, in properly-labelled containers ONLY.)
• Scrap Metal
• Timber
• Green Garden Waste (Domestic customers only)
• General Household Waste
• Bulky Household Items (Furniture)
• Cardboard
• Waste Car Oil (Not cooking oil)
• Paper
• Glass Bottles and Jars
• Aluminium Beverage Cans
• Plastic Bottles
• Textiles
• Batteries (domestic and car)

I have had reason to use this amenity centre before, and I have seen other people depositing of the type of waste you mention. You can view information on Ballymount Amenity Centre here:

Ballymount is not the best civic amenity centre I've ever visited (in fact it's poor by the standard of the centre in say, Carlow) but it will suffice for your purposes.

If travelling to Ballymount is too far for you, contact your local authority for information on amenity centres, opening times, etc in your area.

Hope this is of assistance.

WaterWater said:

You could dig a hole in the garden and bury the stuff .....

Click to expand...

Not such a good idea, wood will eventually rot and then your garden will start sinking.

Hello CMCR
I aggree with you absolutely on the whole recycling issue but you would be horrified to see what clean recyclable waste ends up in the skip on a building site, especially good, useable timber.