To burn or not to burn cardboard?

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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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 1:10 pm Post subject: To burn or not to burn cardboard?

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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 1:14 pm Post subject:
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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:11 pm Post subject:
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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:17 pm Post subject:

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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:18 pm Post subject:
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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:22 pm Post subject:

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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 2:42 pm Post subject:

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: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 3:33 pm Post subject:
[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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 3:41 pm Post subject:

[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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 4:56 pm Post subject:
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.

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 5:58 pm Post subject:

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

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 13 7:39 pm Post subject:
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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