Proper Methods for Pressure Treated Wood Disposal

The use of pressure treated wood is a common thing, especially in the building of external wood projects such as decks, picnic tables, porches, fences, and even vegetable gardens. Unlike the untreated wood, pressure treated wood can resist mildew, insects, and molds. Above all, treated wood can serve you for up to 40 years and more with proper maintenance. In this article, we are going to look at how to dispose of pressure treated wood.

Disposing of pressure treated wood is not as straightforward as most would imaging, first you cannot burn pressure treated wood, so how do you go about this? Read on to find more on the ways of disposing of treated wood.

Proper Methods for Pressure Treated Wood Disposal

1. Selling Leftovers as a Way of Disposing of Pressure Treated Wood

Usually, when you are building your external wooden structures using a treated wood, you are likely to overestimate the much of treated lumber that you need for your project. If that happens, selling the leftovers would be the most appropriate to dispose of them. If you manage to sell successfully, you will be in a position to recoup some of the money you spent on purchasing these products.

2. Free Give Aways of Pressure Treated Wood

If you don’t have use for your pressure treated wood and you can’t sell them yet you are looking to dispose of them, then why not give them for free?

One way of ensuring that you get someone will take your extra treated wood is by piling them outside on your front yard with a signpost written “Free Treated Wood.” If you go that way, you will be surprised at how fast people are willing to take them. 

Furthermore, you might opt for giving away an entire structure if you have no use for it and would like to rid of it. Besides, there are websites that you can use to get people willing to take for free your extra wood. A site such as freecycle.com will help you reach out to a broader audience hence speeding up your disposal.

3. Recycle the Pressure Treated Wood

There are several ways in which you can recycle your pressure treated wood. One of the most effective and conventional methods to do this is by using the extra treated lumber to build another structure.

According to the researchers from the Virginia Tech University’s College of Natural Resources, about 80 percent or more of the pressure treated wood is reusable.

4. Contact Local Authorities About Available Land Fills

Since you cannot burn your pressure treated wood, dumping them inside a landfill is one of the safest ways to do your disposal. You need to contact your local environmental agencies on the possible availability of landfills where you can dump your unwanted pressure treated wood. This step is necessary mainly when you cannot sell or get people to take them for free.

5. Organize With Your Trash Service To Take The Treated Wood

The local trash service would be another effective way to dispose of your pressure treated wood. Much as this is not their primary role, they might consider helping you clear your compound off unwanted pressure treated timber. Just them out, you never know when luck is on your side.

What Happens When You Burn Pressure Treated Wood?

, be it in your backyard, or fireplace. Chemicals, some of which are very dangerous, makes part of the pressure treatment of lumber. If their fumes get into the atmosphere in the form of smoke and you inhale in the process may end up causing severe health conditions.

These fumes posses health risk not just to humans but to the general environment and other animals such as your pets. Continued burning of treated wood could get deep into the atmosphere and be part of the formation of acid rains. Acid rain can kill a lot of vegetation. Therefore burning pressure treated wood can cause so many problems as we have discussed above.

Can Burning Pressure Treated Wood Kill You?

Yes, for sure, burning of pressure treated wood emits some very toxic compounds as we have indicated before. There are reported cases where fumes from pressure treated timber killed a family. It is not only the fumes from treated lumber that are toxic, but even the ash of these woods are also harmful to life.

Conclusion

Understandably, you might end up with a lot of unwanted pressure treated wood after building your exterior wood project. We also understand that you may not want the pile of unwanted pressure treated lumber lying aimlessly in your yard. So, how do You Dispose of Pressure Treated Wood? 

Do not burn pressure treated wood; this leaves you with options such as selling, free give away, dumping on landfill, and recycling as a way of disposing of the wood. Choose the safest and the most effective ways to get rid of your treated lumber.

We hope you find these tips on how to dispose of pressure treated wood. Let us know what you think about this post and will get back to you in cases where you have questions.