The state’s official ban on burn barrels went into effect last month and, in rural areas in particular, people are confused about what they are still allowed to burn, and when.

The point of the law is to keep pollutants, particularly dioxins and other cancer-causing chemicals, out of the air.

Burn barrels have long been a staple of the rural backyard, to get rid of brush and tree limbs. And when you ask burn barrel operators what they burn in there, they will invariably tell you it’s only paper and sticks, never old plastic bags.

My nose tells me otherwise. And now that there are more and more outdoor wood-burning furnaces, even more household garbage is getting turned into smoke. You can see it. You can smell it.
Burning plastics and other highly processed items — old furniture, for example — releases dioxins, toxic organic chemicals that contain chlorine. When you mix those plastics with treated lumber, bleached or colored paper and foam cups — all typical in burn barrels, the state Department of Environmental Conservation says — the smoke, vapor and ash can also contain cyanide, PCBs, volatile organic compounds such as benzene, furans, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and heavy metals.

If you live in a town or city of more than 20,000, burning trash in pits or barrels has been illegal in the state since 1972. The new law expands that ban to municipalities of under 20,000.

Still some exceptions

There are still exceptions to the no-burn rule. In most towns under 20,000 residents, it’s still OK to have a small fire circle to burn brush and tree branches (except during grass-fire season, March 15 to May 15). Backyard barbecue grills and maple sugar boiling houses are still allowed, as are ceremonial bonfires and the burning of flags.

And it’s still OK to burn organic agriculture waste, on site. That means dried corn stalks or the raked up pile of bean vines, not pesticides or that plastic that round hay bales are wrapped in. That last one caused some consternation among some dairy farmers, who typically got rid of the plastic by burning it. And it’s the major reason the Farm Bureau opposed the ban on burning, worrying about the added cost to struggling farms. The state has been working on a pick-up and collection system to help farmers dispose of their plastics.

Even things that seem harmless, like paper and old cardboard boxes, cause problems in the backyard fire circle. That’s because of coatings and inks, but also because an outdoor fire just isn’t hot enough to burn things completely. And incomplete combustion sends particulates into the air, and if you have asthma — or don’t want to get asthma — that’s not good to breathe.

Burn barrels or open fires rarely exceed 500 degrees, according to the DEC. A trash incinerator, on the other hand, burns at around 1,800 degrees, and uses scrubbers and filters on its stacks to further reduce emissions.

Inefficient process

“Pound for pound, household trash burned in a burn barrel gives off twice as many furans, 17 times as much dioxin, and 40 times as much ash as a permitted incinerator. A 1997 EPA study shows that a small number of households burning trash (between 2 and 40 households, depending on how much plastic and paper are in the trash) can produce as much dioxin as a 200 ton/day municipal incinerator,” the DEC says on its Web site.

The World Health Organization notes that dioxins are a particular problem because they are highly toxic and highly stable — which means they don’t break down easily. “In the environment, dioxins tend to accumulate in the food chain. The higher in the animal food chain one goes, the higher is the concentration of dioxins,” WHO says. A fire of 1,000 degrees is hot enough to destroy dioxins, the WHO says.

Don Hassig, director of Cancer Action NY, said the burn ban will go a long way toward reducing dioxins. “[B]anning open waste burning statewide is of great importance to all people who consume foods containing animal fat, including: dairy products, meats and eggs,” Hassig said in a prepared statement. “Current levels of dioxins in these foods impose a significant amount of cancer risk on consumers. . . . [Because] open waste burning is considered by U.S. EPA to be the largest source of dioxin releases to the environment, a burning ban is essential to accomplishing reductions in the quantities of dioxins in the food supply.”

If you’re used to using a burn barrel, cleaning up the air and reducing your children’s risk of cancer are good reasons to stop. That and the enforcement part of the new law, which includes potential fines of between $375 and $15,000.

And if you’re using an outdoor wood boiler — it’s never been OK (or legal) to throw your garbage in there.

Margaret Hartley is the Gazette’s Sunday and features editor. Send questions and comments to greenpoint@dailygazette.net.