Trash or yard burning in Illinois? (Belvidere, Roscoe: house, neighborhoods, live in)

[cruz2009]

Hello everyone,
First of all, please pardon my ignorance. As we're visiting and driving through the northern Illinois area, we noticed home owners burning their front yard or burning piles of what appears to be parts of trash.

We are native Californians, and we are surprised to see this. This is not something we see there.

Can someone please enlighten me and explain why this is done?

[sgresident]

maybe what you saw was a controlled prairie burn. all of the forest preserves around here do that. as far as someone burning their yard, I can't picture that unless they had native prairie in their yards. we live in Kane county, just about 40 to 50 miles outside of chicago. leaf burning is allowed here, so maybe that's what was going on. i guess for more info, I would need to know where you were!

[At1WithNature]

in unicorporated areas, you can burn leaves. there are neighborhoods where up to 4 people on a block will be burning. this happens in fall, and then in spring once the snow melts (like right about now). the weather gets nice, people go in their yards and rake leaves. lots of areas in chicago have wooded lots with 200+ year old Oak Trees and what not. the house that i grew up in, in will county, had 16 Oak trees in 1 acre. Translation = Tons of Leaves.

People who burn garbage are nasty though unless they start a leaf fire with some paper and a corona/beer box or something of that nature. anything that burns black shouldn't be burned at all!

[linicx]

I was tikd by the Fire Marshall it is illegal to burn anything but yard waste in the cities. The ban includes carboard, newspaper, letters, garbage and general trash,

[irish setter girl]

In my area you can not burn anything in your yard. You can have a small firepit for recreation but no major burning. As mentioned before you will see Prairies, forest preserves, marshes, etc... doing controlled burns this time of year to kill off the non-native and invasive plants. I wish I could burn off some of my buckthorn I've been trying to kill for years!

[cruz2009]

We saw this in communities in Roscoe, Cherry Valley, and Belvidere.

[decidingwheretolive]

People in town burn leaves/yard waste, out in the country people can burn anything, or at least they do. I know some people who get no garbage pickup and burn all the trash they can't recycle or compost. Around here some of the farmers seem to burn the ditches all along the road next to the fields. I am not really sure why. Maybe to kill off certain plants.

[Scio42]

There's not a statewide ban on burning leaves & yard waste in Illinois. Laws & enforcement concerning burning leaves & yard waste is at the local levels (County, city, township). Some counties and usually the larger cities and towns (relatively speaking) in Illinois have a ban in place, while smaller towns & rural areas often do not. Some areas do not have any yard waste removal service, so the homeowners burn their yard waste if there is not a ban. Some burn yard waste simple because they can.

As far as trash, yes a few people burn trash when there isn't an ordinance against it. Of course, there are federal laws against burning toxic substances (especially tires). Out in rural areas, there little enforcement and few neighbors to really take note.

[linicx]

This is state law: http://www.epa.state.il.us/community...t-sheets/burn-
barrels/ Do read the exceptions.

[gardener34]

In california, you likely have laws against such burning because of your smog problem and your forest fire issues there. In unincorporated areas of IL, it is regularly done. Most people, unless then are down on the farm, do not burn their garbage. unless it is paper or wood. There are rules against that.