It is made from many types of metals, plastics, coal, oil-based lighter fluid, cardboard and paper, but should only be used once. In addition, it is often sold below cost to entice people to buy barbecue food in the store. The disposable grill is the foremost symbol of the use-and-throw society. A waste problem. Every year, over 1.2 million disposable grills are sold in Norway. Since the disposable grill hit the market over 30 years ago, it has flooded both parks and forests. A few years ago, the Oslo City Environment Agency investigated 413 tonnes of public waste that was taken out of the parks, and found that between 30 and 50 tonnes were disposable barbecues. On good weather days, disposable barbecues can make up 90 per cent of all waste in municipal outdoor areas. A fire problem. Matches, lighter fluid and glowing coals are a major fire hazard in nature. In advance of this chronicle, I contacted fire and rescue services across the country. They report on everything from small fires to large forest fires, from scorched swimming areas to burnt down garbage facilities. Every summer, the fire service spends a lot of resources on calls far and wide, only to discover that the cause is a disposable barbecue – either left in the forest or thrown with glowing coals in the trash. A health problem. The disposable grills create large amounts of airborne dust which can be a major challenge for asthmatics and people with respiratory disorders and cardiovascular diseases. The Institute of Public Health and the Norwegian Environment Agency have found that parks can have as high levels of particulate matter as Oslo’s busiest streets during rush hour. A sustainability problem. Norway has ambitions to move towards a more circular society where resource consumption and waste are reduced as much as possible. It is not compatible with disposable products that are not intended to last, and that are produced from materials that should have a longer life in other products. If Norway is to become a low-emission society, disposable products are the first thing we must stop using. Consumer power should be enough to overcome products such as disposable grills, but sales in recent years do not indicate that people are taking responsibility. It is tempting to challenge the large grocery chains to remove disposable grills from their range, and the Coop chain should be congratulated for stopping the sale of disposable grills earlier this summer due to the risk of forest fires. But all experience shows that disposable grills will find their way back to store shelves. The social enterprises organize 40 fire and rescue services, 108 waste companies, 20 outdoor councils and a number of others who have to clean up and put out fires in forests and parks. There are no good reasons that outweigh the problems with disposable grills. It’s time for a ban.
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Ban disposable barbecues – Speech
