Brush and debris pile burning in cold weather?

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yeah theres that! I think his only social interaction is this forum, and I can see why, nobody actually wants to be around him
Seems some object to a little tire burning a time or two a year for brush disposal. Putting that rubbish in a land fill will create methane which is much more destructive to the environment than a few burning tires a year.
 
Seems some object to a little tire burning a time or two a year for brush disposal. Putting that rubbish in a land fill will create methane which is much more destructive to the environment than a few burning tires a year.
Methane isn't destructive, and the tire will not release methane when it breaks down... unlike the toxic fumes from burning them
this is a landfill that has been grassed over
1704639262791.png

this is a few tires burning
1704639295117.png

you tell me which ones better for the enviroment, smart one
 
I guess one question that hasn't been asked is how"shallow" is the pit? It could be a draft issue
Maybe a foot, including the rocks "neatly assembled" along the rim.

Kind of an "intellectual matter" now, as there is at least a foot of snow as far as the eye can see. Maybe more to come as well.
 
Methane isn't destructive, and the tire will not release methane when it breaks down... unlike the toxic fumes from burning them
this is a landfill that has been grassed over
View attachment 1142188

this is a few tires burning
View attachment 1142189

you tell me which ones better for the enviroment, smart one

Not that I want to get involved in this "contest of manhood", but methane is a problem, it is 10 times as potent as CO2 as a "greenhouse gas".

But, I do oppose "open pit" tire burning as a common practice.

For those that think a burn pit can get hot enough to "neuter" toxic materials, please do a search on "veterans" and "burn pits" and see the issues with veterans of the Gulf War era. They might disagree.

We now return you to our regularly unscheduled slap fest.
 
Thanks for all the constructive advice, and the rather amusing rounds of diverting commentary.

My burning question, (!) will remain unresolved for some months, given the snow. Given the soil here, pretty sure I will have a small "lake" for a few weeks after melt as I did not provide a drainage path out of the hole.

A foot at least and still falling. And more to come later, they say. Oh well.
 
Cut down bunch of White Pine this summer and cleared out a mess of saplings as well. Lots of branches, and smaller trunk sections that I could not find anyone to chip up for me. One guy suggested I just burn them.

So I dug a shallow pit with my backhoe and lined the rim with some of the many rocks around here. Then filled the pit with a pile of (some of) the debris.

It's in the 30's now and snow is predicted, so figured to get a good early start and burn much of it before the forecast storm shows up.

But . . . I could not get the pile to stay burning. Tried kindling, old chain saw mix, and even "fat wood" fireplace fire starters. It would get going and just peter out after a bit. Is there such a thing as it being "too cold" out?

If the snow hits like they say, it will be Spring time before I try again.
I have evolved in burning brush piles. First time I tried to light a big pile was in Northern CA in winter, about a 1/4 acre pile of various slash and brush debris. Boss gave me a milk can full of paint thinner and a stack of newspapers. At noon the paint thinner was gone, most of the papers were gone, and I had a couple charred black spots in the pile, but no real burning done.

So I set out to build a little warming fire, it was maybe high 30's, light drizzle falling, I was cold and wet. I used an axe and busted up some wood, and got a little fire going. As I ate my lunch I kept adding to the fire. By the time I was done eating I had a real cooker going. I dragged stuff to the pile for a while, about 2 pm I went over and got the little FEL John Deere we had and started just shoving the pile onto the fire.

At 3 the local Fire Department showed up, as did my boss. Now we had had maybe 40" of rain in the past month, this pile was the most flammable thing for miles and I'd had a hell of a time getting it lit, so no safety concerns. Fire guys warmed their hands over the pile, shot the breeze with my boss for a bit and left (they were just curious about the smoke).

I was a little worried about the end of the day but my boss told me, and I've carried it to this day, there are three criteria to tell you when the burn pile is big enough: (1) It's so tall you can't throw stuff on top of it any more (2) It's so hot you can't get close enough to it to throw more stuff on (3) There's nothing left to throw. With the tractor to push I got to the third level by about 4, and left it to burn over night.

Next day my boss told me he'd really planned on me spending the week burning that pile, but he figured out some other way to keep me busy.

My current tools of choice are a propane weed burner (I call it my flame thrower): just set it up at the base of the pile for a few minutes blowing heat and flames in to get a decent base going. Then shut it down and apply the leaf blower. Once that fire's ripping along, use a tractor or whatever I've got to shove the pile onto the fire.

Last winter I cut a 48" pine, had all the branches up to about 12" thick burned up two days later.

In CA, in addition to following burn ban restrictions (based on fire danger), getting the required permits, and just using some degree of common sense, you've got to mind air quality restrictions. Each county or "Air Basin" has an Air Quality Management District that establishes "burn day" criteria, mostly related to atmospheric conditions that promote dispersal of smoke.

 
Thanks for all the constructive advice, and the rather amusing rounds of diverting commentary.

My burning question, (!) will remain unresolved for some months, given the snow. Given the soil here, pretty sure I will have a small "lake" for a few weeks after melt as I did not provide a drainage path out of the hole.

A foot at least and still falling. And more to come later, they say. Oh well.
Now is the time to burn it while snow is on the ground. I burn wet wood all the time. Of course if it is sitting in water that is different.
 
Thanks for all the constructive advice, and the rather amusing rounds of diverting commentary.

My burning question, (!) will remain unresolved for some months, given the snow. Given the soil here, pretty sure I will have a small "lake" for a few weeks after melt as I did not provide a drainage path out of the hole.

A foot at least and still falling. And more to come later, they say. Oh well.
Start a small fire with dry wood. If you need to add fuel use either diesel or kerosene. Once you can get a section hot and going it will burn even when wet.
 
you see where I pay for all that? $58 PER TON, covers ALL the work they have to do with it, and they make a metric **** ton of money at the landfill, the profit for my local ~250 acre landfill is probably half a million PER DAY, so I dont feel bad about it at all
$125,000,000/yr in profits lol. 400+ end dumps a day is a lot …..

We can use tires in brush piles all we want. It is not a crime. Hell our fireman and cops do. Some little kiddos read something on the big wide web and think they are experts in their underoos.
I don’t make a habit of throwing tires on brush piles. I do pile brush on tire piles quite often. A couple tires to get it going of a couple gallons of diesel …. Makes me difference to me. Burn it and make it gone.

Methane isn't destructive, and the tire will not release methane when it breaks down... unlike the toxic fumes from burning them
this is a landfill that has been grassed over
View attachment 1142188

this is a few tires burning
View attachment 1142189

you tell me which ones better for the enviroment, smart one
Here is what it looks like to burn totally organic soybean hulls. Can’t be bad for to burn if it came from a plant. Oh wait …. Tires come from plants so it’s okay. :popcorn2:
IMG_0300.jpeg
 
$125,000,000/yr in profits lol. 400+ end dumps a day is a lot …..
should come see this place any saturday between 8am and around 3pm, theres a line of 200+ trucks waiting at the scale all day long, and other work day averages about a truck every 3 minutes
on weekends its mostly pickups and 5x8 trailers, on week days its almost exclusively 40 yard rolloffs, trash compactors, and the large trash trucks, couple grapple trucks and 30 or 40 pickups
 

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