Stewardship Tip 14th Sep, 2010- Repair it, Don’t throw it away
We have several wooden garden carts. The wood has aged and many of the boards have completely rotted away. I’ll be frank, if it would have been twenty years ago, I would have just pitched them into the trash and called it a day. Instead, I spent some time this past weekend repairing them. With a little bit of elbow grease and DIY ingenuity, the carts can serve their purpose for another year.
When you repair an item, you extend its useful life. You also keep it out of a landfill. And, you’ll save a little money if you were thinking of replacing it. No matter what you are looking to fix, you can usually find some instructions on-line to help you out. eHow.com ,instructables.com, and DoItYourself.com all have a wealth of information for the DIYer.
Repairing Garden Carts? Important for Fish? Chromated copper arsenate (CCA) has been used since the 1940′s to pressure treat wood. CCA is a preservative and protects wood against rotting due to insects and microbial agents. Since the 1970′s, the majority of the wood used in outdoor residential structures has been CCA-treated.
Experiments conducted by Jenna Jambeck, et al, indicated that the arsenic and chromium concentrations, leached from CCA-treated wood in simulated landfills, were in the range of 1 to 4 mg/L (above 5 mg/L would classify these as a hazardous waste under US regulations for toxicity).
The Good News: Most modern landfills are constructed to keep leachates, the toxic cocktail that is created when toxins leach from material in a landfill, contained. If CCA-treated wood is discarded in a
modern landfill, the arsenic that did leach from the wood would be held back and kept out of the surrounding environment.
The Bad News: Modern landfill design is far from perfect. geomembranes can be punctured or the seams can split. When leaks occur, leachates can infiltrate our aquifers, streams, and lakes. Our fish pay the price.
Repairing your wooden items, especially those made of CCA-treated wood, extends their useful life and keeps them out of landfills. This helps to reduce chromium, copper, and arsenic in landfill leachates. If you have old wood items, repair them rather than throwing them away.
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