[TriLUG] OT - need a good local place to shred a lot of documentsin Durham

David Burton ncdave4life at gmail.com
Tue Aug 7 21:38:43 EDT 2012


I don't think burning barrels are illegal statewide. They might be illegal
in your jurisdiction, though.

If anyone uses a burning barrel, I suggest, in addition to your excellent
design suggestions, that they make a wire screen lid for it, to prevent
flaming debris from escaping.

Stinky smoke is bad, and CO is bad, and both are unfortunately produced by
burning barrels, but CO2 is good. The reason that there's so little CO2 in
the atmosphere (measured in ppm) and so much O2 (21%) is that the plants
used up nearly all the available CO2. (Contrast with Venus and Mars, where
there're no plants, and the atmospheres are mostly CO2, with little or no
O2.) When there's more CO2 plants grow better and faster. At least 15% of
the agricultural productivity improvement seen over the last century is due
to improved CO2 levels.

Dave


On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 8:20 PM, Peter Neilson <neilson at windstream.net>wrote:

> On Tue, 07 Aug 2012 19:58:24 -0400, Greg Brown <gwbrown1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  I thought about asking if anyone had "a burnin' barrel".
>>
>
> According to law, they are illegal. The original reason they were outlawed
> was probably the general ineptness folks demonstrate in using them. Here
> are the rules, based on laws of chemistry and physics, not of any
> jurisdiction.
>
> 1. Punch holes in the bottom of the barrel. Put it up on firebricks above
> a dirt or gravel surface.
>
> 2. If you feel like putting holes in the sides, put them near the base of
> the barrel.
>
> 3. DON'T BURN PLASTICS. Paper, cardboard and wood are ok. Plastic-coated
> paper is iffy. Vinyl (PVC) is a dreadful mistake. A bit of polystyrene
> isn't as bad as even a few scraps of vinyl.
>
> 4. As ash builds up over the weeks, empty it out. My dad used to bury the
> ash and the kitchen garbage, way back in the dark ages.
>
> Current thoughts on how anything that produces carbon dioxide is evil
> ought to prevent the thoughtcrime of considering a burnin' barrel for about
> the next three-quarters of the foreseeable future.



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