To wonder if disposable BBQs should be banned?

[user1477391263]

They seem to encourage irresponsible behavior, waste and littering.
I am sure a few determined people will try to put their own kits together, but I do think not having disposable ones readily available would certainly put off the majority of people who use them.

I know that "not everyone has a garden where they can do a BBQ." Thing is, though, that's actually meI live in a flat with no garden. In the country where I live, it's accepted that if you want to BBQ and don't have a garden or rooftop, you book at a leisure spot or public facility that has BBQ equipment already set up. This will be a designated area that is safe for BBQing, and there is plenty of water on tap and next to no fire risk. We have hot summers here, and certainly are very rarely getting any kind of BBQ-caused mass firesat any rate, I never heard of any.

Does the UK not have bookable BBQ facilities in BBQ-safe leisure areas?

@SardineJam that bill isn't going any further as the parliamentary session ended. bills.parliament.uk/bills/3068/news

Waitrose have stopped selling on environmental grounds.

One of our parks has BBQ stands to use - no booking. They are always filthy though....

Marks and Spencer and Akdi don't sell them either.

I see that today Sainsbury's and Tesco have also now stopped selling disposable barbecues.

They're saying it's a temporary stoppage, but I hope that the strength of public opinion will mean that it becomes permanent.

If people are going to make a mess they will go and do it without a bbq. I'm a big bbqer having one about every other day at the minute but in my garden.

It's not about making a mess. It's about setting huge swathes of the countryside on fire www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/20613211.fire-service-urge-caution-number-incidents-nearly-triple/

YANBU. In Finland there's public grilling places where you can cook over a wood fire (sometimes the wood is provided, other places you bring your own or there's a kiosk selling bags of it) all around. The ones you get in the countryside will have an axe too in case you need to chop the wood but I expect that would get nicked in Britain! Or banned for health and safety reasons.

I definitely think they should be banned, along with private sales of fireworks.

Does the UK not have bookable BBQ facilities in BBQ-safe leisure areas

I think some parks have areas where you can do one. But do people really have to? Can't people just take picnics out with them to parks and beaches? If you really want a hot dog or burger, buy one. It's not like McDonalds is expensive, even with the price rise.

It's not a flippin human right to have a BBQ in a park because you don't have a garden.

I'm in Scotland and there are public bbq facilities available. Also agree the disposable bbqs should be banned.

I'm in Scotland too. There was fire thought to be caused by a BBQ yesterday on the river bank. 100 yards from the green where there are metal BBQ stands. But someone couldn't be arsed to move, so the retained firefighters had to come out of their work to deal with it.

I find the whole idea: loading up a car, driving somewhere, unloading it and then proceeding to burn over-processed food, eat, pack up and drive home - truly bizarre.

I just don’t get this obsession with BBQs, a lot of hassle for poorly cooked unhygienic food. I’d rather just go to a restaurant.

On the rare occasion I have a BBQ at home, I always buy a disposable one. I don't have them regularly enough to warrant forking out for a proper one and all the cleaning paraphernalia that comes with it.

A disposable BBQ costs €6, a bag of charcoal costs less than €5 and a reusable BBQ can be bought for less than €20. So for the cost of 4 disposable BBQs, you have enough coal for at least that number and you have the BBQ itself for many more, for a lot less ongoing cost in terms of coal (you get at least 3-4 BBQs from 1 bag of coals for the same price as 1 disposable one).

And you need some tools anyway for either to turn the food etc. The only difference is a single brush to clean the grill - and that can be done with just an ordinary potscrubber that you dedicate to the job (as it is a bit dirty to use on pots afterwards - or there's more rinsing involved than normal).

Yes, I agree. Disposable bbqs do not just cause waste, but they also produce more smoke and often burn grass as people put them directly on the ground.

A park near my house used to allow them and at the end of sunny weekends it used to look like a war zone - huge patches of burned grass, and abandoned bbqs and rubbish everywhere.

I saw in the news that some supermarkets are no longer selling disposable bbqs due to fire risk

It is one of those things that I think are a great shame that the few stupid and selfish people spoil it for those who would use them responsibly.

I will admit to having used them a small number of times for a fun cook out when DD was younger. But we always, always tried to use common sense about when and where and definitely took everything away with us when we finished.

For example we once had a lovely day on a practically deserted beach on the Isle of Arran. It was towards the end of August so Scottish schools had gone back so the whole place was quietening down. We put the BBQ on a large flat rock on the beach so there was no fire risk and nobody around to annoy with the smells. And obviously when we had finished we removed every last scrap of rubbish.

There have been one or two other similar ones on quiet beaches and a couple I can think of in very carefully chosen locations where there was no fire risk.

We do have a proper BBQ at home but the advantage of the disposables is they are easy to carry to and from your chosen location.

However, I can see why there is such a weight of public opinion against them when you read about the damage and mess that has been caused by some idiots using them carelessly.

No matter how responsibly and safely you use them out and about though, they still create totally unnecessary rubbish going to landfill.

Yes, they should be banned. Local beauty spot closed down ( huge boulders across car park, picnic tables and benches removed) because yobs burned up the area with disposable barbecues, despite signs everywhere requesting no barbecues. It would have been nice if the ban had been policed and the area kept open, but understand perfectly why it's been done.

YANBU. They are wasteful and dangerous. I have a really funky folding metal barbecue that folds flat and has a carry handle, easier to carry than a disposable one, and all you need is a small bag of charcoal and you're away.

We got it when we had a motorhome, I think we came across it in caravan/motorhome shop.

Disposable BBQ`s are a blight and should have been banned years ago.

Around the Pennines and Peak District fires started by BBQs destroys huge swathes of moorland with uncontrolled fires, not always picked up by main stream media, here are a couple of facts that may surprise some people and why this is seriously bad for our climate.

Peat land stores most of the UK`s land based carbon, they sorted more carbon than all the worlds forests including the rain forest.

When fires happen they release all the carbon into the atmosphere and destroy many plant species that protect peat that cannot naturally regenerate (sphagnum moss), It costs millions to try to repair it.

When peat is burn and it dries out it can no longer store water (10X) its own weight and affects flooding down stream in the country and exposes bare peat to weathering, allowing it to loose up to 100 years of stored carbon every single week.

A disposable bbq costs 1.25 at the coop for members. I used one the other day at my local loch. They have tables with a raised metal bit for bbqs so no grass being burnt. There is a foil tray and a thin bit of mesh at the end. I’d love to see some statistics on how many times you’d have to reuse a bbq in order to have used less resources than disposables.

I think the problem is irresponsible people who cause damage, fail to dispose of sensibly, start fires etc.

Yes banned is the solution. We live opposite a park and have seen the stupidity of people using them on park benches. As a result the benches are now ruined and nopnger used to sit on due to bbq hewr damage.

Ban them completely. Too many risks/ environmental issues.

Take a sandwich/picnic.
Go to a cafe.
It really isn't difficult.