Burning MDF - is it safe

A

anon2398

Guest
I know you are supposed to wear a mask when cutting MDF, and presume it is because of danger of inhaling some of it's dust. Does anyone know if it's safe to burn it in an open fire?

Like wise for painted woodwork?

Thanks!
 
Where are you thinking of burning it?

Burning just about anything these days produces dioxins in abundance. They're absolutely lethal.

The ongoing war regarding waste incinerators is all about dioxins even though they don't produce anything like the level of dioxins that people produce by burning rubbish in their back gardens!
 
You should be ok to burn it in an open fire just cut it down to the appropriate size and be careful not to overload the fire
Good Luck ;)
 
where does it go when I put in my bin

Hi and thanks for your reply. Something that has been bumping around in my head since we got open fire (2 months ago) is burning verses bining. We started to burn our son's nappies. They are eco friendly composatable nappies, but it's not feasible for us to compost, and becuase they are econappies my logic says they are safe to burn.

However I now tend to put other bits and pieces into fire also (e.g. sawn up parts of old MDF kitchen), and while consious of being a very mini incinerator, what happens to my rubbish when I put it in bin for council to take away. Is there treatment any better than mine?
 
Re: where does it go when I put in my bin

Burning in an open fire is a low temperature version of incineration. You need very high temperatures to incinerate safely. You might not drop dead instantly(!), but you may be polluting your local environment.
 
..

Something like wood I would(!! no pun intended) is almost certain to be accepted at a large landfill in a recycling skip. Wood is valuable and used to make chippings.

You should absolutely really not burn in your fire in your house. As has been said the temperatures being reached are far too low to burn anything properly.

Put it this way.....if you read the paper tomorrow and they were opening an incinerator next door would you allow it to go there without you protesting? You are essentially doing the same thing in your living room, putting all your health at a big risk long term. You need to burn rubbish at hundreds of degress for you to start getting into what experts think may be safe levels.

It is highly illegal to burn rubbish in your back garden...and thats in the outside air because of the health risk and you are doing this in an enclosed room!!!
 
mdf

dont burn it what ever you do? this material is banned in most countries as it on the same par as absestos ,
 
MDF same as absestos?

Do you know where I might find out more about this? I'm really scared now as we have been burning some if it (small quanties).

Thanks.
 
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