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Stop dumping ash!


Maffi

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4 minutes ago, rgreg said:

Also, don't dump it in the cut.

Indeed. Keeping the bottom of the canal far enough away from the top to boat is hard enough as it is. When our moorings were drained a few years ago while the adjacent lock gates were being replaced you could tell exactly which boaters do this. A large mound of ash on the canal bed by each one. People think it somehow magically disappears. It doesn't it sinks straight to the bottom. Let it cool and put it with the general rubbish. Once burnt, wood and coal ash is a fraction of the volume of the original fuel.

If I remember right, coal ash from power stations used to get made in to building blocks or some such? Is there anything that coal, and/or wood ash can be recycled in to?

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7 hours ago, Maffi said:

Everywhere I go I see piles and piles of ash dumped along the hedgerow, Even in Braunston, where the towpath is narrow in places, lazy itinerant boaters dump their ash.  Ash is two of three things. If its coal based ash it is TOXIC waste! and fly-tipping. Nothing grows through it. If it is wood based ash it is rubbish and constitutes fly-tipping. Yes I know wood ash is good for the garden and in your own garden you can do what you like. Either way all ash should be disposed of properly, that is to say cooled, bagged, and binned.

 

Last Sunday as we walked across the main road bridge, in Braunston to the car, we saw flames and palls of smoke coming out of the hedgerow at the back of Vegas Racing. This will be the third time I have witnessed a fire in that short line of trees, and a lazy itinerant boater is to blame. I am sure it has happened more times than that. Fortunately another boater was arriving on the scene to deal with it. I wonder how many small creatures get baked alive in these circumstances.

There are those who suggest putting it in the puddles on the tow path, stupid idea, fine ash and water mixed together makes gooey sludge! 

 

What is so hard about bagging it an binning it? There is no reason to dump your ash. When using coal, at the end of a 25 kg bag of coal, you have an empty bag and its FREE! Put your ash in that! You will bin the bags anyway. Now I know some here will talk about hot ash in plastic bags and they are almost right, but you can alleviate that problem. Try one of these Clarke CHT848 12 Litre Stainless Steel Bucket With Lid - Machine Mart - Machine Mart £19.19 is nice shiney Stainless Steel and will last for ever,  ( there is a 16 litre size) If you cant afford one of these you could try one of these Draper 12L Galvanised Steel Bucket - Machine Mart - Machine Mart £7.98.  it's Galvanised so not so shiney, and should last 6/7 years or more. I have one on my roof. It stands on an old piece or Hexboard to stop it damaging the paint work. I burn solid fuel from September to May so there is always a plentiful supply of bags.

 

Place ash into the bucket to cool and when cool empty into the plastic bag. If you are not sure its cool put some water in it, it will soon tell you. (mind your eyes).

Fly-tipping is a despicable thing to do. It damages the environment. and kills wildlife. We as boaters should be looking after the environment we live in not 

burning it down!

 

Word of warning, if you do get a bucket please do not store hot ash on your front/rear decks. Until the heat is gone the ashes will still be producing Carbon gasses that could get in through your ventilators. I leave mine on the tow path!

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Give the Ash and empty coal bags to them with composting toilets. I'm sure they would find it useful. ?

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We have a mini bin with a lid that does look like a dustbin. Empty ash into it, let it cool and get full and empty into coal bag to dispose of. We haven’t always done this.

 

Footnote to Maffi. Did you get your passport stamped going that far?

2 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

They need to do something about these liveaboard boaters!! Shouldnt be legal realy should it ?

I can see you’re going to start acting like an ex-smoker criticising liveaboarders.

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1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

If I remember right, coal ash from power stations used to get made in to building blocks or some such?

 

At a slight tangent :

My 'best mate' and 'best man' did his degree in Geology, on completion he got a job with the CEGB (Central Electricty Generating Board, now long gone) selling the ash produced by the power stations.

 

When we bought the Farm in Wales, it was on the site of an old 1700's / 1800's coal mine, I was levelling one of the fields and came across coal, further investigation showed it was the old coal storage yard.

 

We obtained planning permission for the extraction of the coal, which was then sold onto a 'block making' company at Chester who used the fine coal as part of their process.

 

The 'seam' was quite thick and spread across several acres - No2 Son demonstrating :

 

 

 

Richard In Coal Hole.jpg

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Certainly dumping any form of waste in any place other than a licenced disposal facility is fly-tipping, illegal, and downright inconsiderate.

However, it was not always this way! The ash or cinders produced by working steam locomotives used to be re-used to make pathways and various other purposes. I remember when British Waterways would collect lorry loads of the stuff from the Great Central Railway in Loughborough as recently as the 1980s.

Unfortunately, the fine ash produced from the types of solid fuel currently favoured by many boaters is a different product and cannot be used for pathways.

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2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

 

If I remember right, coal ash from power stations used to get made in to building blocks or some such? Is there anything that coal, and/or wood ash can be recycled in to?

Isn't that what breeze blocks were? They were often used to build the internal walls of houses.

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2 minutes ago, Tonka said:

Is this now classed as fly tipping

 

Could that be why it is called fly-ash ?

 

Fly ash is a fine powder that is a byproduct of burning pulverized coal in electric generation power plants. Fly ash is a pozzolan, a substance containing aluminous and siliceous material that forms cement in the presence of water. When mixed with lime and water, fly ash forms a compound similar to Portland cement.

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35 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Couple of years ago, someone on here insisted ash should be dumped at the bottom of the hedge. It's lucky internet advice is so accurate, consistent and we all follow it religously.

 

Yes - I used to advocate using ash to fill holes in the towing path - but that only works if ash is from burning proper coal. It doesn't work with manufactured compressed solid fuels because these contain high levels of toxic additives.

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5 minutes ago, NB Alnwick said:

 

Yes - I used to advocate using ash to fill holes in the towing path - but that only works if ash is from burning proper coal. It doesn't work with manufactured compressed solid fuels because these contain high levels of toxic additives.

What's more, you practised what you preached: I remember you doing this along the towpath below Cropredy lock, in the days when you moored towpath-side.

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28 minutes ago, NB Alnwick said:

 

Yes - I used to advocate using ash to fill holes in the towing path - but that only works if ash is from burning proper coal. It doesn't work with manufactured compressed solid fuels because these contain high levels of toxic additives.

 

I'm not so sure about that?

 

https://pearsonfuels.co.uk/how-is-smokeless-coal-made/

 

What we do know is that even burning it smokeless coal gives off less CO2 and far less toxic particulate matter (PM 2.5) than bituminous house coal, or what you call "proper" coal. 

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6 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

I'm not so sure about that?

 

https://pearsonfuels.co.uk/how-is-smokeless-coal-made/

 

What we do know is that even burning it smokeless coal gives off less CO2 and far less toxic particulate matter (PM 2.5) than bituminous house coal, or what you call "proper" coal. 

 

Sorry to mislead - those who have followed my posts on fuel in previous years will know that the 'proper coal' that I refer to is Welsh Anthracite which is almost pure carbon and less toxic than bituminous coal or manufactured fuel briquettes.

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