Try to describe the use of a burn barrel to city kids today, and you are likely going to get some strange looks — and maybe even a citation. For many of us, burning “stuff” in barrels was a common practice. These 55-gallon drums were regularly seen in the backyards and alleyways in many Iowa towns and cities. In some places, they still are.
Burn barrels were part of an “incineration” practice in America, and Iowans used these barrels as a way to dispose of garbage.
My childhood neighbors, Harry and Babe, had a several-acre lot that our neighborhood grew around. Their home still had that “rural” feel, despite being in the midst of our small town. Past the windmill and the garden and the neatly mowed yard, there was a burn barrel sitting on a few cinder blocks. Each night, they would take paper bags of their trash out and light a fire, and we joined them, too. It was a common sight and a common smell. If an aerosol can happened to be tucked away in the sack of garbage that was burning, it was a common sound, too.
Nobody seemed to care much about what was stored in those barrels prior to using them to burn things. And nobody seemed to care much about what was being burned in them either. At the time, the whole process just seemed better than throwing garbage in a can that would fill up the dump. (The term landfill wasn’t popular yet.)
You have to admire the ingenuity of those who were “repurposing” these barrels. The drum shape and overall design helped control the spread of embers and ashes in a relatively closed environment, even on a windy day. And the sturdiness of the barrels allowed them to sustain intense heat for quite some time. Where they finally went after being burnt through, one can only imagine. Hopefully, they did not end up in a river.
The thick smoke and fumes certainly weren’t good for the environment. In fact, the EPA reports that one burn barrel can produce as much pollution as a municipal-level waste combustor destroying 200 tons a day. Smokers, children, the elderly and pregnant women were also found to face reproductive, developmental and immune-deficiency problems from long-term exposure to these burn barrel fumes.
So, as a result of these and other problems, burn barrels are banned in many areas today. Instead of the 55-gallon drums, we now — where it is legal — sit around fire pits while roasting marshmallows and hot dogs over the flames. Some of the problems may still exist, but if Harry and Babe were still alive, I think they would approve.
Have a marvelous Monday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305 | 
