Fiery warning over hot ashes in wheelie bins

With outside temperatures dropping and more fires being lit, people are being reminded not to put hot ashes in their wheelie bins.

“If you put hot ashes in your wheelie bin it may cause a fire and melt the bin. If that happens and your bin is placed hard up against your house or a fence, the fire could quickly spread,’’ says Christchurch City Council Solid Waste Manager Ross Trotter.

The wall of this house was scorched after hot ashes were mistakenly placed in a wheelie bin.

“We know there are cases where this has happened so as we go into winter we are working with Fire and Emergency New Zealand to ensure people know how to safely dispose of the ashes from their fire.

“Our advice is let your ashes cool for at least five days before you bag them and put them in your red wheelie bin.

“Please don’t put the ashes in the green bin because they will contaminate the organic material and we won’t be able to compost it,’’ Mr Trotter says.

During May the Council is also running a campaign to remind people to put timber off-cuts and sawdust in their red wheelie bins.

Timber can contain high concentrations of arsenic, a toxic chemical which cannot be broken down. If the food scraps and garden waste that make up the organic material in the green wheelie bin gets contaminated with arsenic, they cannot be processed into compost because the end product will contain too many toxins.

“It only takes a small 4cm piece of fence paling to contaminate a 10-litre bin so it’s really important that if you have timber you want to dispose of that you put it in the red bin, not the green bin,’’ Mr Trotter says.