Beginning

May 1, the open burning ban is being expanded to cover 45 counties.

The

ban covers the original 13 counties that comprise the Atlanta Ozone Nonattainment

Area and 32 additional counties that surround the Ozone Nonattainment

Area.

The

counties subject to the ban include: Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll,

Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas,

Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Fulton, Gordon, Gwinnett, Hall, Haralson, Heard,

Henry, Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Lumpkin, Madison, Meriwether, Monroe,

Morgan,Newton, Oconee, Paulding, Pickens, Pike, Polk, Putnam, Rockdale,

Spalding, Troup, Upson and Walton.

The

burn ban is in effect in the 45 counties from May 1 through September

30 each year.

What

Types of Open Burning Are Banned?

Some

types of open burning have always been prohibited by the Georgia Rules

for Air Quality Control. This ban prohibits several additional types of

burning during the ozone season as follows.

These

Additional Types Of Open burning Are Prohibited:

Burning

of leaves, tree limbs, or other yard wastes;

Burning

of vegetative waste from land clearing (includes a ban on the use of air

curtain destructors).

Burning

over of forest land by the owners of the land, with exceptions prescribed

burning of forest land is allowed in the following 26 counties: Banks,

Barrow, Butts, Chattooga, Clarke, Dawson, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson,Heard,

Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Lumpkin, Madison, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan,

Oconee, Pickens, Pike, Polk, Putnam, Troup, and Upson.

few types of open fires are still allowed provided there are no local

ordinances that prohibit them. These include:

Fires

for carrying out recognized agricultural practices.

Fires

for recreational purposes or for cooking food.

Fires

for training fire-fighting personnel.

What

are the alternatives?

The

open burning ban will result in more solid waste. Alternatives, which

result in the reuse or recycling of this waste, should be pursued, where

feasible.

Some

alternatives are:

Yard

trimmings (leaves, brush, grass clippings, shrub and tree prunings, vegetative

residuals, etc.). These have been banned from certain landfills effective

September 1, 1996.

Composting,

mulching, chipping, natural decomposition, etc. are recommended alternatives.

The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has a brochure entitled "Composting

at Home in Georgia" that tells you more about composting yard trimmings.

Available on the web at https://www.dca.state.ga.us/solidwaste/index.html

Many

municipal landfills and convenience centers accept yard trimmings from

residents and process them into compost and mulch. Contact your local

solid waste department to learn about local yard trimming recycling options.

You can also call 1-800-Cleanup or log on at https://www.1800cleanup.org

to find local information for yard trimming management and other recycling

options.

For

more information on yard trimmings management, contact the Department

of Community Affairs, Office of Environmental Management at 404-679-4940.