Dispose of chimney ash: Before it ends up in the residual waste, there are still a few things you can do with it
Created: 12/19/2022, 11:30 am
By: Andrea Stettner
When the fireplace or tiled stove crackles in winter, it quickly gets comfortably warm.
But what to do with the ashes?
There are three options to choose from.
A wood fire creates a particularly cozy warmth in winter.
So you can spend many romantic winter evenings in front of the fireplace.
If you have a water-bearing stove, the central heating can often not be used at all, as this distributes the heat evenly throughout the house.
But when fire blazes, of course, there is also a lot of wood ash.
This consists largely of burnt lime (calcium oxide).
A number of things must therefore be taken into account when disposing of it.
Just dump it on the compost or in the garden - you shouldn't do that.
Before the ash ends up in the bin unused, you can still do a lot with it.
Ash from the stove is an excellent fertilizer.
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1. Dispose of the ash: in the residual waste
Wood ash is properly disposed of in the residual waste bin.
However, it can only land here after 48 hours, because the ashes are often still hot and the garbage cans are made of plastic.
You should not dispose of the ash in the organic waste or on the compost, as the ash contains many pollutants such as lead and cadmium.
Especially when treated wood is burned, the pollutant content increases enormously.
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2. Use ash as fertilizer: Please use caution
The possible pollutant content is also one of the reasons why you should not simply use ashes as fertilizer in the garden: there is a risk of enriching the soil with toxic substances.
In addition, the high pH of the ash is not optimal (pH between 11 and 13).
"The highly alkaline quicklime can cause leaf burns," informs the
My Beautiful Garden portal.
Therefore, you should use wood ash as a fertilizer with caution.
Garden experts recommend adhering to the following rules for ash fertilization:
Only use ashes from untreated wood.
Apply only small amounts of wood ash - a maximum of 100 milliliters per square meter per year.
Fertilize only ornamental plants with the ash, never useful plants.
In this way you ensure that no heavy metals enter the food chain via the harvested vegetables.
Lawn is best suited for ash fertilization.
Only fertilize loamy or clayey soils.
These absorb the strong increase in pH value caused by the calcium oxide in the ash.
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3. Use ash for cleaning
Another alternative for reusing ash sounds unusual at first: ash can be used as an excellent household remedy for the next major cleaning.
The porous structure of the ash acts like a scrub and makes metal in particular shine again.
Ash removes stubborn stains on cutlery and stainless steel dishes and cleans expired copper and silver.
Or you can use ash as a scouring agent: pick up some ash with a cloth, rub pots, baking trays or sinks with it, wash off, done!