Can you burn laminate countertops?

[jtpryan]

I have countertops left over from a kitchen remodeling. If I cut them into small pieces could I burn them in a woodstove or will the laminate be dangerous? Short of that could I just bonfire it?

-jtpr

[Colbyt]

Countertops most likely built on a substrate containing nasty stuff and the laminate is nasty stuff when burnt.

I suggest you cut them into pieces that will fit in your normal household garbage and dispose of them that way.

Bonfire is a second choice if you live in the country and the wind is blowing away from your house.

Colbyt

[Ross Mac]

Make sure it is a burn day with the fire dept. so we don't see y'all in the evening news!........Ross

[PrecisionMachinisT]

Make sure its blowing towards your neighbors house instead.

[jtpryan]

Right. I actually thought the bonfire might be a good thing. Up here in NH you can burn this time of year as long as you give notice. I just didn't want to end up with a ball of burnt plastic. What exactly is laminate/formica anyway?

-jtpr

[Ross Mac]

Here's a link....

there is formaldehyde in formica which I believe is a carcinogen.....so you might want to get upwind. ....Ross

[trader4]

Great idea, while we're all buying cars with $2000 in polution control technology to improve the air you want to burn plastic and wood in a bonfire.

[Colbyt]

Actually it isn't a good idea. I mentioned it only as a second choice. By out in the country I meant somewhat isolated. The fumes from this stuff burning can do you serious harm.

Colbyt

[JerryMouse]

There's two kinds of plastics: thermoplastic and thermosetting.

Thermoplastics melt when heated.

Thermosettings just get harder and continue to link their atoms together (Bakelite, for example) until you end up with one giant molecule. More heat, and they char, and, eventually (at about the temperature of the Sun) turn into a carbonized hunk (think Hans Solo).

Formica is thermosetting. I don't think it'll burn short of a blast furnace.

[c_kubie]

Make sure you remove them countertops from the kitchen first.

C_kubie

[Don Klipstein]

Formaldehyde danger in small dose has been overblown...

As known to those who paid attention in class on whatever day in 10th grade biology if they took that class...

The photosynthesis reaction that takes place in green plants exposed to sunlight is CO2 plus H2O plus energy captured by chlorophyll from sunlight yields O2 plus CH2O.

CH2O is formaldehyde, which is then used by plants to build carbohydrates, including sugars, starches, and cellulose - a main ingredient of the "cell walls" of all plant cells.

Eat green plant matter that is not yet dead or died only very recentyly and do so in light, and you east some trace of formaldehyde!

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Don Klipstein]

Thermosettings decompose/carbonize, generally at temperatures short of that of burning charcoal (ballpark of 1500-1600 degrees F or 850-900 degrees C). Gas/vapor products of such decomposition include combustible to flammable ones. Thermosetting plastics may have lower flammability ratings but they can burn and will usually burn with flames if tossed into a bonfire.

- Don Klipstein ( [e-mail])

[Richard J Kinch]

Formica and similar laminates are phenolic resin bonded to paper under high pressure. It will certainly burn, and produce toxic fumes.

[Ross Mac]

You may have paid attention in the 10th grade but you didn't google this subject...

Actually , Don, the amounts of H2CO that you speak of would not be nearly the amounts generated by burning formica and thus the reason for my warning...

[Charles Bishop]

Of the two, I'd think it would be better in a landfill (where it might reach the water table, rather than have the nasty stuff in the atmosphere.

charels