ARE FIRE PITS BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?
Fire pits are a great idea for the backyard, and it adds a popular garden feature. They look great, charming, and cozy and bring a lot of joy; that's why people love to spend most of their time sitting outside and enjoy spending time with family and friends. However, there is growing concern over the environmental impact of fire pits. In this article, we are discussing how fire pits will impact the environment, and we will explore the reasons why.
Are Fire Pits Bad For The Environment?
Yes, fire pits are bad for the environment and our health because they burn wood, which releases smoke into the air. They emit hazardous gases like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane. These gases affect the clean air in the environment and are greenhouse gases. Fire pit smoke and particles also cause local air pollution that affects many people when they inhale the smoke that causes respiratory and worsening pre-existing conditions. Air pollution caused by fire pits and wood burning affects trees or vegetation nearby. According to research, in populated areas like Australia and London where the use of fire pits consider a nuisance. The smoke of fire pits causes serious impacts on the climate and health of residents' area. Smoke can affect overall immunity and health conditions; it will affect children more because they breathe more air than adults due to their development stage.
How to Make the Fire Pit Environment-Friendly?
You can never make your fire-pit environment eco-friendly or prevent it from emitting smoke. You can use low-emission firewood to make your environment friendly. Seasoned wood is the best to cause low pollution because it has low moisture content. You can control the fire pit's smoke by storing wood in a dry place or buying dried wood like a kiln. It is important to burn seasoned wood in fire pits to produce a large amount of heat, and secondly, burning wet wood causes more smoke due to 20% moisture content. So if you have a fire pit but don't have space to place dried wood then always buy dried wood like a kiln, dried hickory, or kiln-dried oak. All of these are eco-friendly wood that causes little smoke and makes the climate clean.
⦁ Why Is Burning Wet Wood Harmful To The Environment?
Wet woods produce particulate matter that is more hazardous than dry wood smoke. Moreover, wet wood changes the climate and contributes to acid rain. When particulate matter accumulates, it causes severe effects on climate and water bodies that become acidic. So it is important to take some steps to overcome its pollution because a small amount of particulate matter affects the environment.
⦁ How To Reduce The Environmental Impact Of Fire Pits?
Here we want to make our environment friendly so that we can inhale fresh and clean air that will not affect our health. So the best to get control hazardous smoke is to use low-emission firewood in your fire pits or chimney.
1.Using Best Woods
Here are the best quality eco-friendly woods that have less than 20% moisture which are:
⦁ Kiln
⦁ Seasoned wood
2. Reducing Smoke
By selecting the right wood for your chimney or fire pit, you can easily reduce the climate impact of smoke fumes.
3. Storing Wood in Dry Places
You can easily reduce the impact of fire pits on the environment by storing wood in a dry place because seasoned woods are stored for years, and their moisture content evaporates with time, so it is best to use seasoned wood for fire pits.
On the other hand, kiln wood is also best because it dries faster and has an extra carbon footprint. You can also use heat logs or coffee logs, good eco options to reduce air pollution.
⦁ Issues Created Due To Fire Pits
Fire pits create many issues in our climate, like air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, habitat loss, and soil degradation. Burning fire pits creates air pollution that causes smoke, affecting our environment and changing the climate. We inhale pollutants like nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other harmful gases. Water pollution is another big issue caused by fire pits and contaminates the water sources with ash, soot, and other pollutants. Also, aquatic life will remain in danger, making water unsafe for human consumption due to water pollution. Burning fire pits also cause erosion and sedimentation. Burning of fire pits also causes soil degradation that also changes the environment. Burning wood-based fire pits produce excessive heat that damages plants and kills microorganisms in the soil. It also causes soil erosion and nutrient depletion in plants. Fire pits wood burning smoke make plants' life difficult to survive due to ash and other byproducts that alters the soil PH. One of the main issues causing by fire pits is deforestation; as people burn more wood, they destroy natural habitats and biodiversity. Moreover, firewood transportation and processing lead to carbon emission that creates environmental issues.
⦁ Advantages
Beyond all the disadvantages, fire pits also have some good points.
1. Fire Pits Give Us A Feeling Of Coziness.
Fire pits provide us with heat, light, and coziness that exhibits us and makes our life easier.
Imagine you come home from the office upset or frustrated due to your boss or something else; sitting in front of a fire pit can relax your mind.
2. Make Your Home Look Nicer.
Fire pits can make your home look nicer and increase the ambiance of the home. They give your home's backyard area an aesthetic look and an inimitable appearance.
You especially feel happy when you combine a fire pit with a pool, which will create a certain environment and make you happy when you look at your backyard.
3. Back to Roots
Many people are adding fire pits to their backyard gardens due to the fact evolved with our ancestors when electricity was not invented. You can get a little piece of life after installing these garden fire pits.
4. Add Additional Living Space
Adding fire pits to your backyard is a nice idea if you have a large family with a small home. You can turn your backyard into an additional living space to spend evenings with a large family.
5. Increase Property Level
The home's quality of life and appearance can be increased by adding fire pits to the backyard and increasing the property level.
Final Verdict
Fire pits will never be environmentally friendly due to the production of excess smoke, water pollution, air pollution, deforestation, and soil degradation. However, if you love to burn fire pits in your backyard area, we have discussed ways to make the environment eco-friendly by using wood-based fireplaces. You can easily minimize the smoke by using seasoned or dried wood. Wet wood contains 20% moisture, producing more smoke and contaminating the environment. So in this article, we have discussed why fire pits are bad for the environment and what the advantages and disadvantages of fire pits smoke. This article will help you reduce fire pits' impact on climate. As individuals and society as a whole, we must consider the environmental impact of our choices and strive to make more sustainable decisions.