Environmental Progress - Summer 1997

Waste Burning: Some Restrictions May Apply

Violations can carry fines of up to $50,000.

Most towns and cities today offer recycling and reliable garbage pickup. Some people, however, continue to dispose of garbage, household waste and yard waste by an unhealthy and sometimes illegal method: burning.

Burning these types of discarded matter can release particulate matter, a pollutant associated with respiratory irritation and diseases. Title 35, Subtitle B of the Illinois Administrative Code prohibits the burning of most matter throughout Illinois. However, these wastes can be burned providing the following conditions are met:

Domicile waste (household garbage - discarded matter generated from regular family activities) may only burned in areas that are not defined as a restricted area (i.e. any municipality, plus a zone extending one mile beyond the city limits of any municipality with a population of 1,000 or more).

Agricultural waste (discarded matter, except garbage and dead animals, generated on a farm or ranch by crop and livestock production practices and including bags, cartons, dry bedding, structural materials and crop residues) may be burned without an Illinois EPA permit if each of the following conditions is true:

It is burned on the site where generated.

It is burned when atmospheric conditions will readily dissipate contaminants (between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. when winds exceed 5 mph).

Burning does not create a visibility hazard.

It is burned in non-restricted areas (i.e., at least one mile away from the boundaries of any municipality with a population of 1,000 or less).

Burning occurs more than 1,000 feet from residential or other populated areas.

Burning can be demonstrated as the only economically feasible method of disposal.

Landscape waste (any discarded vegetable or plant matter, except garbage and agricultural waste, including trees, tree trimmings, branches, stumps, brush, weeds, leaves, grass, shrubbery and yard trimmings) may be burned without an Illinois EPA permit if each of the following conditions is true:

It is burned on the site where generated.

It is burned when atmospheric conditions will readily dissipate contaminants.

Burning does not create a visibility hazard.

It is not burned in a municipality that has enacted ordinances which restricts or bans landscape waste burning.

Senate Bill 1103, sponsored by Sen. Penny Severns (D-Decatur), recently passed the General Assembly and was approved by Gov. Jim Edgar. The bill would authorize the Pollution Control Board to impose regulations prohibiting burning of landscape waste in all municipalities in Illinois with a population of more than 75,000. Decatur was the only municipality falling within that criteria that had not already restricted landscape waste burning by local ordinance.

Additional information on burning can be obtained from the permit section of Illinois EPA's Bureau of Air at 217-782-2113.