Disposing of hot charcoal at the beach

February 22, 2005 5:50 PM

What is a safe and friendly way to dispose of hot charcoal at a sandy, lake side beach? With no fire pits or steel drums handy, should I just wait for the coals to cool and carry them out in the grill?
posted by tomharpel to Food & Drink (3 answers total)

Put them in water. Someone I knew used to just put his whole hibachi grill into the lake for a few minutes, but you could pull the coals out with tongs and drop them into a bucket of water to put them out. They can then be safely disposed in a trash can.
posted by caddis at 6:09 PM on February 22, 2005

Depending on what size you are taking about... bring a large coffee can to put them in. Trash cans can be problematic depending on what is in them (catching fire) or if you really want to walk off leaving potentially hazardous things around for others. And dipping it in the lake? Sheesh, nasty.

Condensed answer, if nothing is there, bring something, or wait.
posted by edgeways at 7:19 PM on February 22, 2005

Whatever you do, do not leave the old charcoal somewhere inconspicuous or bury it. The snow-white beaches here where I live in FL, are not as snow-white as they once were because of the many, many years of campfires. There was a story in our paper several years back about a guy from Birmingham, AL whose parents had collected a jar of our sand as a souvenir while on vacation here back in the 50s and he wanted to return it whence it came. When he dumped the sand out he said there was a big difference in the two. Carbon does not degrade and it doesn't go away.
posted by wsg at 10:42 PM on February 22, 2005