Legalities of selling treated wood as firewood

[fergusonforestry]

dunno about legalites of selling it but we always used treated timber for kindling coz me dad works for a builder so it was free

[chris23a]

Ive been looking through some articles on google and have found many articles claiming you shouldn't burn treated wood, mainly for health reasons, but i am yet to find any definitive proof that it is actually illegal.

 

Forest Firewood

[openspaceman]

Ive been looking through some articles on google and have found many articles claiming you shouldn't burn treated wood, mainly for health reasons, but i am yet to find any definitive proof that it is actually illegal.

 

Forest Firewood

 

My guess is that it is illegal under waste transfer rules.

 

If burned commercially it would be covered in the waste incineration directive.

 

About the only rule that applies to burning in a domestic fire is to do with emitting dark smoke AFAIK

[Kev Stephenson]

My guess is that it is illegal under waste transfer rules.

 

If burned commercially it would be covered in the waste incineration directive.

 

About the only rule that applies to burning in a domestic fire is to do with emitting dark smoke AFAIK

 

It's not waste if you are selling it, it is a product.

 

Emitting dark smoke (smokeless zones) mean you should not be burning any wood not just tanalised.

[skyhuck]

It's not waste if you are selling it, it is a product.

 

Emitting dark smoke (smokeless zones) mean you should not be burning any wood not just tanalised.

 

You can burn wood in a smokeless zone.

 

Dry wood on a hot fire makes no smoke, plus approved stoves re-burn the smoke.

[nepia]

Heard the tannelised green timber gives off cyanide gas or something like that! Doubt that would be any good for ya!

 

 

This subject was discussed on here many moons ago and someone who seemed to know his stuff mentioned that MDF was awful stuff to burn domestically because the many chemicals it produces include benzene-based ones: compounds based on the 6-carbon benzene ring are highly carcinogenic.

[windfall]

A guy over here was stopped from selling pallet wood kindling, not sure who stopped him though!

 

 

 

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=54.218269,-4.420784

[openspaceman]

It's not waste if you are selling it, it is a product..

 

That statement is untrue, you would have to prove that the product made from waste has ceased to be waste. The EA have simply made a position statement about virgin biomass and clean wood not being considered waste if used as fuel.

 

Emitting dark smoke (smokeless zones) mean you should not be burning any wood not just tanalised.

 

Not so, it is an offence under the clean air act wherever it happens and refers to domestic fires too.

[openspaceman]

This subject was discussed on here many moons ago and someone who seemed to know his stuff mentioned that MDF was awful stuff to burn domestically because the many chemicals it produces include benzene-based ones: compounds based on the 6-carbon benzene ring are highly carcinogenic.

 

Poor wood burning also produces carcinogens, the first documented industrial cancer was testicular cancer in boys who had been chimney sweeps.

 

MDF is woodfibre stuck together and compressed with about 7% glue, plywood uses a little less. Nowadays this glue is formaldehyde based and if the burn is incomplete the PICs from this form into furfurans and phenol like compounds. There are appliances on the market that can burn these wastes as exempt appliances because they burn much hotter than an ordinary log stove. Oddly creosoted wood does not enjoy this exemption, which surprises me because it should also burn completely at high temperature.

 

What should not be burned are those woods treated with halogens ( either as a fire retardent or pesticide) because at temperatures around and above 700C they can reform with the phenol like compounds into dioxins. Dioxins have the ability to replace the linking compounds in a strand of DNA.

 

Similarly any wood treated with a heavy metal cannot be burned in anything other than an incinerator becuase of the volatile species emitted into the atmosphere for us all to breathe. Large incinerators use a number of techniques to scrub these from flue gas and their ash is deemed hazardous.

 

As I said the laws for what a person may do with household waste are quite different from commercial waste/

[openspaceman]

A guy over here was stopped from selling pallet wood kindling, not sure who stopped him though!

 

Pallet wood is normally considered to be a clean wood waste unless the wood is treated or painted, stained pallets (like those nice blue CHEP ones) are still classed as clean waste. Many pallet blocks are now reconstituted wood and these are not clean because of the glue used..