[Stoves] Air pollution in cities

[neiltm at uwclub.net]

On 20 Nov 2017 at 10:47, Andrew Heggie wrote:

> Christa, the burning of autumn leaves has nearly died out in urban UK,
> mostly because the local authority have a paid for, in addition to the
> normal municipal waste, collection service for garden waste as well as
> civic amenities sites where it can be deposited for free.
> 
> It strikes me this is a resource worthy of use in "legacy foundation"
> medium density briquettes for cooking fuel.
> 
> It would also serve as a source of biochar rather than being composted
> as is the practice here.

Composted autumn leaves makes for a very high quality fertilizer/soil 
amendment, and to burn them in open heaps in gardens is an ignorant waste 
my family were no less guilty of participating in until switching to 
composting.  I would expect their value as a soil improver for fertility 
and soil structure to be in excess of their fuel value.  My parents clay 
soil garden was totally transformed over the years (50) from the 'leaf 
mould' they made from the fall from their 30 or so mature deciduous 
trees.  I remember an experiment at the Henry Doubleday organic garden 
centre at Ryton near Coventry comparing the size of cabbages grown with 
different soil amendments, and the leaf mould winning hands down.

You only have to go back to before the ban came in in 1993 in England to 
know what stubble burning was like.  I can remember a day in the Essex 
countryside where the midday sun was a dull orange glow in a smoke filled 
atmosphere for miles.  Horrendous madness.  After the ban some of those 
farms installed straw bale boilers which met all their heating needs year 
round.  

Neil Taylor