Down at the office where I work, I saw these recycle containers made of hard plastic, the ones that are lined up alonside and picked up mechanically by the collecting trucks.
Some of them had this written on the lid - " NO HOT ASHES".
Because people are what they are, I can understand some putting things in recycle bins that do not belong there. But who would knowingly or otherwise put hot ashes in a recycling container. And is it so frequent that they have to mention this as a warning on the lid?
In the UK at least dustbins were originally metal and one of the things people would put in them were the ashes raked out from solid fuel boilers or open fires - I guess sometimes the ashes may still have been hot, or at least warm but that wouldn’t cause a problem.
When plastic bins came in they bore the legend “No hot ashes” so as to prevent those same people absent mindedly putting warm ashes into a bin where they would cause damage.
Either no one has thought about removing the label or maybe a decision was taken that given we live in a world of “contents are hot” and “may contain nuts” the warning should stay for the very few who may still deal with hot ashes - especially if said ashes were once paper and should obviously go for recycling
The “No hot ashes” warning is a generic thing that they put on all plastic trash bins. Those things go everywhere and they don’t want to make a special stamp just for some of them. Some of them end up in parks that have BBQ grills, for example.
Well, ok I understand the need to convey to the users to avoid putting anything hot in recycle bins, but then wouldn’t it be better to write something like “No hot items” or something like that rather than restrict what goes in to "hot ashes"only?
My father once put hot ashes (he thought they had cooled–they had been sitting in a charcoal smoker for several days) into a plastic trash can and they melted the can and started to set things next to the can on fire! I was up late doing homework and happened to smell smoke coming from the garage. Fortunately, there was not much damage, but had I not noticed it in time, it could have been really bad.
So yes, it happens, although a sign might not have helped, seeing as he thought the ashes were cool already.
