It was bad enough for one homeowner when their neighbors started regularly burning trash in their adjacent yard — but it got even worse when they completely denied any wrongdoing.
The homeowner wrote about the situation in a Reddit post. "My neighbors have literally been burning trash calling it a bonfire and refusing to stop since 'it's not illegal' it's f****** disgusting," they wrote.
"You might look into the legality of that," one commenter suggested, saying that despite what the neighbors said, "it's not legal in many places."
"It's not!" the original poster agreed. "It's the UK they call it a bonfire but it stinks of burning plastic and or rubber and sometimes the smoke is black … they refuse to stop and when politely asked to, they reply with aggression."
Fortunately for the OP, what their neighbors are doing is certainly illegal. According to the UK government's website, "you cannot get rid of household waste if it will cause pollution or harm people's health. This includes burning it."
But unfortunately for the OP, that means that the constant pile of burning trash next door is objectively harmful to their health.
The act of burning garbage releases a number of toxic chemicals, including dioxin, a known carcinogen, as well as mercury and carbon monoxide, according to the Conservation Law Foundation.
However, as toxic as it is to burn trash, it's still used as an option by many corporations and governments to eliminate the heaping piles of refuse that would otherwise end up in already overflowing landfills.
But these industrial burning facilities are no better. Per the clean waste removal group Just Zero, these facilities "are toxic and climate-damaging. … Using heat to break down plastics requires a huge amount of external energy (supplied by burning fossil fuels) and releases toxins and climate-damaging gases."
This is why nearly all state, local, and tribal governments in the U.S. prohibit or at least restrict backyard burning as well, per the Environmental Protection Agency.
If you witness or suspect garbage burning in your area, look for a dedicated hotline with your state or county's environmental organization to report it.
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