Burning rubbish to clean up a camp

[Shewie]

I've never done it myself as I always take out what I bring in but, is it ever okay to gather up all the trash in a camp and burn it off rather than bagging it all up ?

I'm talking about coves on a sea loch where 90% of it is fishing industry flotsam and the rest is left by lazy 4rsed Neds.

The sort of stuff I'm talking about is broken up crates, plastic containers of all shapes and sizes, shoes (for some reason), plastic ropes etc etc

There's a couple of places I'd like to spend half a day at and gather up all the junk laying about and torch the lot of it. What would be the environmental effect and would it be better to just leave it there forever ?
Obviously I don't intend inhaling much of the smoke.

If it was to get burnt and the fireplace was prepped properly, would there just be a mucky old lump of bubbly plastic which could be picked up and taken away ?

The ideal solution would be to bag it all up but that would just be impossible in a small canoe.


Just curious

 

[the_k]

I should think if you get a hot enough fire going and steadily add the rubbish then it should all burn completely.

 

[Trev]

Heyho ,
Not got an answer for you , hard to know what's worse the dioxins or all the stuff left lying all over the place . Although I suspect the latter .
Trev .

You could make all the rubbish into little boats and then tow in all back , You could be Battlestar Galactica with your own ragtag fleet

 

[BigM]

Have to say I wouldn't be in favour of it. Rubbish is bad, but I just can't reconcile myself with that really toxic black substance left from burning plastic. Doesn't sit well with my idea of bushcraft. However, if you take it away with you afterwards then I suppose that's the responsible thing to do. It's a good question, the more I think about it... Well done that man.

 

[rancid badger]

I don't think anyone would recommend burning the plastic.

I've seen it done, time and time again by people who claim to "love the outdoors" etc.

Wooden crates, etc. no problem, though I think I'd be tempted just to leave those in a heap, for firewood.

Best bet, might be to organise a "Spring Clean" of the area Rich.

We do that in Chopwell Wood, every year, with skips either supplied by the council ( not this year methinks) or hired in by the Friends of Chopwell Wood.
You wouldn't believe how much crxp is dumped in the wood, particularly plastic bottles, beer cans, broken glass bottles and the range of stuff that is thrown into the wood at the western (Chopwell end)edge, is staggering.

Obviously, you wouldn't be looking at getting skips in but if you get a decent sized group of paddlers together, you could probably shift a fair pile of crxp. Find out where the nearest "recycling" site is and drop off the crxp there.

you never know; if you contacted the local council up there, they might even agree to supply a skip for the weekend

cheers

Steve

 

[Teepee]

I hate to see the rubbish and would happily burn the stuff but I know that burning some plastics releases really nasty chemicals (Dioxins) which are far worse for the environment than piles of slowly rotting plastic. They are the most carcinogenic chemicals known by a long way, and don't get released unless burnt. They also don't easily break down.
Polypropylene and polyethylene are ok to burn, but most of the junk is a mixture of all sorts of plastic and seperating and identifying them would be a proper nightmare.

Unfortunately, my vote goes to leaving and tidying, or towing the hateful raft 'o' crap behind