Should disposable BBQs be banned?

[Auburngal]

Last year, many retailers, including mine stopped selling disposable BBQs due to the dry and extremely hot weather. I'm not a fan on disposable BBQs

They should be banned as:

1. People have them in public parks and beaches which isn't allowed, unless the park has a designated BBQ area. Because of this, the ground is charred (in parks) and people leave the rubbish behind - including food. As my fellow litter wombles have found.
2. They are a fire hazard
3. People are injured by buried disposable BBQs on beaches.

No I don't think they should be banned.

Completely agree, they are totally and utterly unnecessary. The waste and hazard they create is not worth the fun, and frankly they're shit at cooking anyway.

It's not even just buried ones on beaches that cause injury. Once removed the sand stays dangerously hot for a long time.

I don't like them. Wasteful and hazardous.

Is there a safe way to dispose of them if you’re not at home?

Yes, they should be banned. Many fires have been started by them in the countryside around here, including one which raged for two weeks in Wareham Forest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Wareham_Forest_fire

They should be banned but jet skis should be more banned 🤣

I agree, get rid of them. In the New Forest there were regular fires last year caused by idiots using them despite signs up saying no bbqs.

Agree.

Yes I think it just is basic environmental sense really. We have used them before but I wouldn't be upset if they were banned. I think a lot of things though should probably be banned for the sake of the environment and wildlife not least cats, balloons, plastic cutlery, Chinese lanterns, polystyrene packaging......the list goes on and on but I doubt any of them will actually be banned.

Yes. They caused a number of park fires in our local area last year, the grass was dry as dust and still they ignored the NO BBQ signs and lit them, and they are one of those items that people dont think about “ oh, how are we going to get this home, it’s still hot” So then they dump them. Use them in your own back garden but don’t take them anywhere else.

If someone can't think of a safe way of disposing of them, then don't use them.

Why not just fine people who use them irresponsibly?

get caught using one in a no bbq area, get a hefty fine.

improper disposal is harder to prove, but if it can be linked it should.

They probably should be banned but there also should be places where people can cook and socialise outside for those who haven't got room to store a BBQ and or a garden. Places to cook Paella on specially designed stands are quite common in Spain.

Yes they should - I thought most of the supermarkets had stopped selling them.

Because they are so small and portable, there have been cases of people taking them inside tents and suffering carbon monoxide poisoning. Not saying that a ban is the answer, but another risk to consider.

Completely agree. I can't believe they haven't been banned already.

I hate seeing people using them on the beach, I always worry about children stepping on the hot sand later. In that respect, its probably just as well that the type of person who uses them usually just leaves them dumped on the sand so you can at least keep children away.

Not much help fining people when you only find out they’ve been used irresponsibly by the forest fire that runs for days.

Sadly, yes I think they probably should be banned.

I think that in the U.K., a lot of people just aren’t used to the concept of Leave No Trace, responsible fire setting, and picking up after themselves, because we rarely have to cope with wildfires and very dry weather. As temperatures rise and summers become hotter, better education around that is going to become a necessity, as it isn’t just disposable barbecues which will be an issue. Banning them in isolation isn’t going to solve the problem.

I don’t live very far from Wareham forest, I have seen the devastation it has caused several times. A lot of supermarkets in Dorset did stop selling them but many other places continued. They should be banned, they are awful, a huge fire risk. I saw mess left behind from one today in a local car park. There are many better options you can buy that are not disposable so are less likely to be left behind, chucked into a hedge or put into a bin whilst still alight.

Unless you have lots of water or you’re at home and you can safely leave them on concrete to cool for hours I don’t think they’re easy to dispose of safely. They stay very hot for a long time. I don’t think it’s reasonable to sell something as disposable when it’s messy and dangerous to dispose of.

It’s not just the heat, the edges are very sharp and I have heard of people being cut on ones that were abandoned in the sand.
I mainly hate them for the pollution on a crowded beach or campsite. Proper bbqs don’t seem to be as noxious as the disposable ones.

We always have one on the beach if it's hot when we are at one of our caravans! We tip water on it and the sand when we are done. Then take the bbq and rubbish and chuck them in the bin! It's lime most things if they are used by responsible people, fireworks for example

Yes they should be banned for all of the reasons suggested above and they can’t cook a tomato, so serious risk of food poisoning too! 😂😂😂

Ban them. Even if you can leave them on concrete and dispose of them safely at home, we should ban them. You can cook your sausages on the hob and take the hot dog outside. I am biased though. Why use a barbecue of any kind at home when you’ve a perfectly good oven which cooks things properly!

Y E S

and agree with jet skis too.