# Was burning trash once common in suburban American homes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 13, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096 "2015-07-13T23:55:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/21 "2015-07-14T02:25:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Wow. Simulpost of simulposts! I edited my post to add another line to the quoted text from Wikipedia, to point out that Yorty did in fact make good on his trash promise. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/22 "2015-07-14T02:29:33Z")
I can still remember when my hometown (or maybe Pennsylvania) banned burning barrels in the 80s. Before that, you could roam my inner-suburban neighborhood any night of the week and see (and smell) plenty of people burning trash. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/23 "2015-07-14T03:10:02Z")
Not quite the same, but st. Joseph missouri still allows burning of yard waste in a burn barrel. [Open Burning of Yard Waste | St. Joseph, MO - Official Website](http://www.stjoemo.info/index.aspx?NID=425) Worst place I ever lived and I’ll go out of my way to tell everybody, at any opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/24 "2015-07-14T03:41:46Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I think it was pretty common in the country, and some suburbs. Still is. We do, and most people I know do it. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/25 "2015-07-14T03:43:58Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I edited my post to add another line to the quoted text from Wikipedia, to point out that Yorty did in fact make good on his trash promise. And I was posting off my smart phone, so it slowed me down. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/26 "2015-07-14T03:52:21Z")
When I grew up in the 50s and 60s there was a large rusty metal drum at bottom of the yard where my father would burn the trash. This was in the Philly suburbs in an urban rowhouse neighborhood. At some point, I think it was in the early 60s, this was outlawed. If I recall correctly, it was outlawed because people complained that their laundry (which was hung on clotheslines) always smelled of smoke from burning trash. There must have also been trash collection of some kind because you had to do something with the ashes and you obviously couldn’t burn things like tin cans. I can still remember the flames shooting out of the top of that can and the smoke and embers blowing through the air. I have to wonder how many fires were started by burning embers. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/27 "2015-07-14T04:09:42Z")
My family’s home (built 1960, just inside Chicago’s city limits) had a small incinerator in the basement. We used it very rarely. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/28 "2015-07-14T04:15:05Z")
Heck, two nights ago the entire block was woken up at 11:30 pm by rolling clouds of choking black smoke - seems one guy just _had_ to burn some trash at that hour of the night, prompting not only people running around in the dark trying to determine if it was their building on fire, but the fire department and police showed up for the party, too. It was suggested that he burn smaller amounts, and maybe during the daytime so as to not cause _quite_ that much disturbance next time. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/29 "2015-07-14T04:21:13Z")
I live in a suburb of Cleveland and even though we have always had city waste collection, most of the houses in my neighborhood had basement incinerators. It was my job to take the burnables down and put them in the incinerator…when I got old enough I was allowed to light it, which scared the crap out of me. Emptying the ashes was the worst bit. We also had compost heaps, and some of the neighbors burned leaves until the city outlawed it. I think we had the incinerator up until about 1970, though it might have been taken out earlier…I’ll have to check with my older brother. House was built in 1952. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/30 "2015-07-14T04:48:26Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Although it says that backyard trash burning was mostly stopped after WWII, I’m sure that a lot of places let it continue, or at least didn’t pay much formal attention. Not only was it not stopped after WW-II but businesses built in the 60’s had incinerators for cardboard. Spent many an evening in the stockroom feeding one in the mid 70’s. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I think the missing piece of the history is that suburbs often didn’t have municipal trash collectors like cities did. You contracted with a private company and they would charge you by the amount you threw out. That gave huge incentives to burning garbage. Leaf burning was common in fall, which makes sense if the alternative was paying someone to haul it away. Trash collection was common and it was cheap to dispose of. Land used for trash is still easily available and many large cities had incinerators right up until the 80’s. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Smog and air pollution became national concerns in the 1960s, leading to the EPA and the Clean Air Act, but suburban pollution from backyard burning was also condemned. The backyard incinerator is alive and well with chimineas. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/31 "2015-07-14T05:46:56Z")
My step-dad starting burning trash in a 50 gallon drum in the backyard in 1990. This was a 1 acre lot not in city limits. We didn’t have trash pickup, and our street was actually our driveway and around 600 ft. So no one would’ve driven down it or pushed a trashcan down it anyway. We had to pay to dump trash at a landfill where county employees would look through your garbage. He told me his dad did the same when he was a kid. His childhood home was in a city in Florida. I’ve been more than happy to pay for city trash removal since 1997. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/32 "2015-07-14T06:28:26Z")
I was raised in an old (1915) section of Dayton OH and moved (dad’s job) to a small town in IN (cheaper labor). I never saw residential burning other than leaves. The dime store I worked at in High School had an incinerator (mid-60’s). The screen shot shows what looks to be a first-generation of the post-war building boom - the siding and windows pin it. I’d put it mid-50’s. It has a raised floor - the slab construction now everywhere was considered the tackiest way to build a house. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/33 "2015-07-14T15:03:52Z")
In the 50s in a very small town, we burned our trash. I remember we had an aerosol can incident once, as well. Very scary. Anything that didn’t burn (mostly cans and bottles in everyday garbage), we took to a dumping site. Not really a dump at all. Just a place off the side of the highway where people threw things. I remember seeing bedsprings and such. (Waste food would go to the pig, if you had one.) Back in those days (I know), you just didn’t generate all that much trash. No Amazon cruft to deal with! Our farm living relatives still do something similar to this day. I wouldn’t be surprised if the folk in that old small town still burn most of their trash. Around here, most of the burning is just idiots burning leaves. But we have one neighbor that burns a lot of other yard debris in his driveway. Right on the concrete. Regardless of outdoor burning bans, so clearly no permit. And definitely a lot closer than 200ft from the nearest structure. (Which would rule out anyplace in most people’s yards.) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/34 "2015-07-14T15:13:10Z")
My folks still do it. There’s no garbage pick-up out in the boondocks where they live. Paper trash is burned; organic waste (non-meat variety) is composted; plastic metal and glass are hauled into town to be recycled at the town dump. They just use a “burn barrel”, an old metal drum that was once used to store oil. It has holes in the bottom. You cram it full of paper and cardboard then light it from the base. ETA: they live on a farm and there’s plenty of room to isolate it from any structures ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/35 "2015-07-14T15:16:42Z")
I have a friend who still does it. She calls in a controlled burn to the fire department, so they know, and they burn in the backyard. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/36 "2015-07-14T15:25:25Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > My folks still do it. There’s no garbage pick-up out in the boondocks where they live. Paper trash is burned; organic waste (non-meat variety) is composted; plastic metal and glass are hauled into town to be recycled at the town dump. They _could_ compost or recycle the paper trash. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/37 "2015-07-14T15:28:53Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The supermarket that I worked at during high school up until 1991 had an incinerator that I loved to claim as my own personal pyromania experiment during my working hours. ISTR as a kid, little incinerators weren’t uncommon out back of grocery stores and some restaurants. They typically looked like little black dumpsters with a long (4x the height of the box part) narrow smokestack with a little pointy cap on the top. I think they used to just burn up the boxes that produce and other stuff came in, rather than have it fill up the dumpster that they were paying for. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/38 "2015-07-14T15:46:26Z")
The first home I really remember had an incinerator in the basement and the smoke went up the same chimney as the furnace. This was right downtown in a town in Michigan. Later, in my early teens, it was one of my chores to take out the trash and burn it in an old oil drum. This was in the 70s. We were out in the sticks by that time though. The practice is frowned upon now due to carbon emissions. We bury or recycle it all now. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/39 "2015-07-14T15:52:01Z")
We burned trash in a barrel growing up. I’m 37 so this was 80s-mid 90s. This was a town of less than 1000 people. There was no trash service, public or private, and the alternative was to drive 15 miles to the landfill. We did collect our plastic and metal to take to the dump every so often. Mostly what was burned was paper and cardboard. “Taking out the trash” meant taking matches and digging out a piece of paper or something from the top and lighting it. It burns fast. Once it catches, it could be finished in a couple minutes depending on what’s in there, though it would an older a while after. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096/40 "2015-07-14T15:53:08Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > It \*still is \*very common in rural areas. We live in the country and many of our neighbors use their burn barrels regularly. We have a barrel and I use it for large cardboard boxes (like when we buy a new washing machine). There is a strange family near us who seem to be _always_ burning something; ugly stuff like styrofoam, furniture cushions, etc. I feel bad for their nearby neighbors. ETA: I take 99% of our household waste (that the chickens don’t eat) to work and put it in my dumpster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-burning-trash-once-common-in-suburban-american-homes/725096.md?page=3)