Summer is here and we’re hanging at our local break… times are good. But what about when it comes to tea time? What are you going to do then? The answer, of course, is a barbie!!!! I love a BBQ. There is little better than cooking in the great outdoors after a surf, when all your tired limbs want is an overcooked sausage and some vegetables on a stick. That’s heaven to me.
But I have a big problem with those disposable barbecues.
Some people love them. In fact, a lot of people love them. In the UK supermarket giant Asda sells over 600,000 of them each year. I suppose the idea of them is that you can just grab one from the supermarket, whip around the aisles and pick up some bangers then cruise down to the beach and cook the lot with just one match. No mess, no fuss, no hassle.
But for me,they are indicative of the way we like to live sometimes. They put convenience over the environment and encourage us to be wasteful. And I absolutely hate them with a mad passion. Take a look at the film to get the top line. But, if you want more detail, here’s the full rant:
- Disposable barbecues are made of aluminium, steel, and charcoal impregnated with chemicals. They are also wrapped in cardboard and then plastic. It’s a lot of resources for your sausage, don’t you think?
- The charcoal in disposables often comes from tropical forest sources where it’s making causes pollution, not to mention the using up of forest resources for your convenience. So, if you must use them, choose wisely.
- The plastic film they are wrapped in is unrecyclable. In fact, the whole thing is difficult to recycle.
- By calling something disposable it implies that it is ok to just throw it away. It really isn’t when you consider that the steel and aluminium are precious resources that we should be conserving.
- The term disposable encourages littering… like it’s ok to leave these things where they were used. We see them on the beach all the time.
- Every year people leave these things on beaches. People cut their feet on them and get burned by them. They even get burned by the place where they were cooking once they have been removed. Some idiots bury them and people stand on them, resulting in burns.
- People put them in litter bins, where they smoulder and set everything alight. I have personally fished one out of a bin that was at the point of igniting the whole bin.
- Disposable barbecues give off a terrifying amount of carbon monoxide. They kill campers every year and have even been known to kill people when used at home. They are really dangerous.
- On a cooking level they rarely get hot enough to cook a decent amount of food, so risking food poisoning.
- They are impregnated with fuel to aid lighting. IF you put your sausage on it before it’s burned off properly your sausage is going to be full of it. DO you really want that?
So what’s the answer to all this? It’s really is a fine #2minutesolution. Go buy a bucket barbecue and use it over and over again. You’ll save money in the long run and you’ll have a chance to buy FSC managed charcoal from sustainable stocks. It’s a win-win situation and it won’t get left on my beach.
Thank you.
