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To burn or not to burn cardboard?

 
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Annemieke



Joined: 26 Feb 2013
Posts: 131
Location: Somerset UK
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 1:10 pm    Post subject: To burn or not to burn cardboard? Reply with quote
    

I wouldn't dream of burning plastic. However, to give the fire in our Rayburn more oomph, I sometimes add bits of cardboard to it, the corrugated kind which is used for vegetable boxes and the like. First I carefully remove all plastic tapes and labels.
The reason that this cardboard heats up the fire so well is, I suppose, the glue used for the corrugation.
Am I doing wrong? Am I blowing poisons into the atmosphere? I must add that I live in the middle of the countryside, which apparently makes a difference as woodburners aren't allowed in some towns, I believe. (Is this true?)

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 1:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

we burn card, partly because we don't have a really good fuel supply so tend to burn anything we can when it gets really cold.

Green Rosie



Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 10498
Location: Calvados, France
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I burn cardboard to help get the woodburner going or if it needs a boost when I have forgotten to feed it wood Otherwise I either recycle it or compost it/use it as mulch.

Mary-Jane



Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 18397
Location: The Fishing Strumpet is from Ceredigion in West Wales
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

sally_in_wales wrote:
...we don't have a really good fuel supply so tend to burn anything we can when it gets really cold.



Went



Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I doubt the small amount of cardboard you burn will make any difference - plastic of course is bad and I wish I could find a way of preventing the farmers around here burning it.

We use some cardboard for the compost bins but apart from that we recycle it as we have a lot of kindling for fire lighting.

alison
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Wentworth wrote:
I doubt the small amount of cardboard you burn will make any difference - plastic of course is bad and I wish I could find a way of preventing the farmers around here burning it.


Agree

I never really thought about it, when we used to have a big bonfire every week. We just burned all of our waste, having taken out recycling. Due to major reading, quite a few years ago now, on this site, we now invest in a weekly skip bin that takes all that waste away.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Mary-Jane wrote:
sally_in_wales wrote:
...we don't have a really good fuel supply so tend to burn anything we can when it gets really cold.




well, 'normal' burnable things, like scrap wood, pine cones, cardboard, bit of coal dug out of the garden, junkmail. Not coldcallers, bridges or dead shoes (as random examples)

Ty Gwyn



Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4562
Location: Lampeter
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

[quote="sally_in_wales:1326591"] bit of coal dug out of the garden,


How good a seam do you have,might be intertested?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

[quote="Ty Gwyn:1326595"]
sally_in_wales wrote:
bit of coal dug out of the garden,


How good a seam do you have,might be intertested?


just random lumps as best I can tell, never been right down to the bedrock though

henchard



Joined: 23 Aug 2012
Posts: 232
Location: Carmarthenshire
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 4:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

If there is a less environmentally damaging way of getting rid of it than recovering the stored energy in it, as heat, I'd like to know what it is.

Hairyloon



Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 5:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

henchard wrote:
If there is a less environmentally damaging way of getting rid of it than recovering the stored energy in it, as heat, I'd like to know what it is.
]
If we're wanting to be pedantic, then I think composting beats it.

onemanband



Joined: 26 Dec 2010
Posts: 1473
Location: NCA90
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 13 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I'll home compost brown cardboard but not glossy stuff.
Anyone know what's in glossy printed cardboard ?
My last council took cardboard in the green wheelie bin - the one that goes to the composting facility. There was no specification as to what type of cardboard and I never had glossy cardboard rejected and AFAIK nobody else did.

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