CIWM applauds the new Government and Andy Burnham for highlighting the inherent danger caused by throwaway barbeques. Across the UK, the careless (and even careful) use of these items presents a real and ongoing risk to public safety and to our hugely valued parks, nature reserves, woods, forests and heathland going up in smoke.  They are labelled as ‘disposable’, but in reality they are anything but.
 
There can be fewer products where the case for a quick and outright ban is stronger, and CIWM calls on Government to act – and ban them – and retailers and users to do the right thing and stop selling and using them. 
 
A quick online search lists hundreds of ways to buy these cheap and nasty products, with one major retailer listing reasons ‘why we love them’, without a single mention of the facts.

Identified by Fire & Rescue Services as causes of serious fires in our national parks, landscapes, and campsites across the UK – especially as we see continued tinderbox conditions from current and future heatwaves.  These fires destroy habitats and wildlife and put the safety of people, including responding emergency services, at real risk.  
 
Far from being ‘easily disposable’, they are actually very hard to dispose of. Unless thoroughly doused in water, or left for several hours to dissipate all heat, they cause fires in bins, and often leave smouldering coals in the sand they are often buried in for people to step on. A good proportion are simply abandoned, becoming dangerous litter – hot charcoal and metal grates with jagged edges.  Even when they don’t cause fires, they kill grass and leave unsightly burnt patches across well-tended parks and gardens.
 
Most are made in China and, far from being sustainable, use charcoal from unverified sources doused in chemical fire starters. A ‘less-circular’ product is hard to envisage – and anything still labelled as ‘throwaway’ feels a relic of the past. They are not even particularly safe to cook on, with the grate being uniformly too close to the coals, mostly resulting in flash-charred sausages or undercooked chicken.
 
The voluntary guidelines issued by the British Retail Consortium are not enough. While some responsible retailers, including Aldi and Waitrose, have already stopped selling them, others have not, and  Parliamentary petitions and motions have failed to get the attention of Government. 
 
CIWM calls for a swift and outright ban on all difficult-to-dispose-of (so-called ‘disposable’) barbeques.