London fire chief calls for a ‘total ban’ on disposable barbecues

40 comments
  1. there needs to be an official mass education on fire safety.

    Some of the things i’ve seen people do in this heatwave that they’ve seen on social media copying them – i’m honestly just baffled at how some people have even survived this long in life.

  2. Something something sovereignty!

    It is our constitutional right to not be responsible of a disposable barbecue and to drink many cans of Stella while being not in charge of said lit bbq, in the park/countryside

    Edit: /s as some people…😐

  3. I wouldn’t miss them, a lot of families around here make a massive fucking mess with them in the local parks.

  4. Tbh they are shite and cause more harm and damage than they produce decent food. And very few are recycled if any so it’s a lot of extra waste.

  5. As much as I concur with this, there needs to be dedicated BBQ sections in parks (with potentially Gas BBQs but given the currently Gas situation, maybe having charcoal ones would be better).

    I’m now lucky enough to have access to a garden, however previously in a top floor flat the only outdoor space I had access to was a park (this is the same for a lot of Londoners), where in the hot summers me and friends would go to the park and have a BBQ and a few beers. Admittedly I feel I did this in some what responsible way (raised the disposable off the ground and put it out with water at the end), but it was still against the park rules, but there was no other option. Having BBQ’s (potentially hire able which is easier to do with gas) accessible which are away from grass and other flammable areas would be a great solution to have along side getting rid of disposable barbecues.

    (Also other poster in this thread is correct, having education about fire safety would be useful too)

  6. Seems reasonable, the part of the park near me in Morden was utterly destroyed because of a fire involving disposable BBQ.

  7. All the people sneering at the quality of disposable barbecues ITT are quite amusing, as if they want to ban them for being an inferior bbq experience. Nope, it’s the fires and the disposal.

    I’ve had great days out with pals with these things. Of course a permanent grill gives you more consistent results, but that’s not why these exist. The idea that the UK is going to provide permanent public bbqs in enough places to replace them is pie in the sky.

    So I hope they don’t have to be banned. But I fully accept it might be necessary. The thing is it depends on the harm they do to the environment, not whether they burn your sausages or whatever.

  8. In Australia on the grass verge next to busy beaches they put 3-4 electric BBQ’s, where you press a button and it heats the metal plate to cooking temperature for 10-15 mins then goes off. So you press the button every 5 mins or so and it keeps resetting the time etc. They were so well looked after, people used to clean them before and after use, they would make space for people to dual cook on the same one and wipe down the metal spatulas that they had. It was great.

    I guarantee if we had them in the UK they would get trashed almost instantly.

  9. Makes sense. I never saw one used or disposed of with any regard for surroundings.

    Nice park, plop one down and scorch the lawn or tabletop.

    Never mind the stink.

  10. If an product’s name includes the word “disposable” then you have to question whether it’s really justifiable just from an environmental point of view.

  11. Yeah I went to box Hill once and there was a family that had a lit barbecue on the grass under a fucking tree… no care in the world

  12. Nationwide ban hopefully. I used to live in the Peak District and you will find no end of idiots plonking them on tinder dry peat and grass only to either leave a burn patch the size of the bbq or set the entire field alight.

  13. As much as I love a barbecue in the park with my mates, these things are absolute fucking dogwank. Trying to cook anything with anything more than a bee’s fart of wind just isn’t going to work.

  14. Maybe a slightly left field take, but as someone who BBQs a lot, disposable BBQs are completely shit and don’t actually work well as BBQs at all.

    By the time the coals are white their essentially burnt out so there’s no really way to cook without burning the outside.

  15. Before a total ban should be considered maybe they should see if there is a way to make them safe, maybe having a stand or something and if that isn’t good enough then ban them. Its not disposable barbecues that are the problem, its people being irresponsible with them.

  16. I wonder where the hell people complaining about the cooking quality of them are actually buying them, I’ve never had a problem using one and getting the job done just fine.

  17. They should be banned, in my local park the bbq users just dump the still smouldering trays in the bushes, a dog burnt its paws on one the other week, and i hear it happens every year. And they are useless to cook with anyhow.

  18. They’re pretty shite at actually cooking things they seem to only be good a starting wild fires especially on the Yorkshire Moors

  19. Good. Disposable ones are wasteful, dangerous and crap anyway.

    A park near me has burns on the wooden picnic tables where some idiots thought using a disposable bbq would be a good idea on top of some dry as hell wood.

  20. In my park in the USA we have grills set into concrete next to gazebos in the park, no need for disposable if the grills are provided.

  21. Somehow … and I don’t know how … but I’ve managed to get through all of my life without buying a disposable BBQ. It’s miraculous really when I think about it.

  22. Person in charge of fires wants barbecues banned.

    Person in charge of liver transplants wants alcohol banned.

    Person in charge of road safety wants 20mph national speed limit.

  23. Do it. In my irresponsible teens my friends and I would get these, have a BBQ and then “dispose” of them in the bushes. They’re just a bad idea.

  24. Good, perhaps enact policy only allowing barbecues on a fire retardant surface too, the grass isn’t exactly nonflammable at the moment.

  25. Someone put one in a bin near me, needless to say the bin and the surroundings turned into a nice gloopy mess on the floor.

  26. What about my second hour in the afternoon right to bear disposable bbqs??

    The only thing that can stop a fire caused by a disposable bbq is a good guy with a bigger disposable bbq…that’s made mostly of fire truck and contains 500 litres of water.

  27. Yes I see the scorch marks left by people using them. Even if they tidy everything else up the burn remains and of course in dry spells can cause issues.

Leave a Reply