How To Properly Dispose Of Charcoal Ashes When Your Cookout Is Over

With delicious meals on the line, plenty of backyard chefs are eager to know hacks that come in handy for grilling season. If you have a charcoal grill, one of these hacks is knowing how to properly dispose of charcoal ashes when the cookout is over. The first step is to make sure the ashes are completely cooled. The recommended wait time is 48 hours to ensure all heat is gone. If you grill more frequently than this, it's helpful to keep a designated, non-plastic ash bucket next to the grill to hold the ashes while you wait.

Depending on how much charcoal you need for your grill and how often you dispose of the ash, you may have a lot to get rid of. You can put the ashes in a trash bin and let them get picked up by waste management services, but make sure to either wrap the ashes in tin foil or place them in a holding container like an old food storage one that's no longer in use. Keeping the ash contained will mitigate the risk of melting anything in the trash can (or the trash can itself). If sustainability is something you're into, there are ways you can reuse old charcoal ashes.

One question you may ask yourself before planting a garden is how much you're going to spoil your plants rotten (or rather, not rotten). You can use spent charcoal ash as a fertilizer in your garden to feed your plants. Since ashes contain potassium carbonate, adding it to a garden will slightly change the pH of the soil. It shouldn't be used for plants like blueberries, azaleas, hydrangeas, or fresh seedlings. However, most plants love the addition of charcoal ash thanks to the added nutrition so give it a go for a happier garden.

Adding charcoal ash can also step up your garden's defenses by turning it into a spray. Mix 1 ounce of ash, 1 ounce of hydrated lime, and 1 gallon of water to spray around the garden perimeter. This will deter pests like slugs and snails who are looking to help themselves to your veggies and herbs since they dislike the alkaline potassium carbonate. 

You can use this same blend to keep pests like lice and mites away from chicken coops. Be sure to use only additive-free charcoal ash to your garden. Ashes from briquette charcoal contain chemicals that can leach into the soil and do more harm than good. Ashes contaminated with lighter fluid should also be disposed of in a trash bin rather than added to garden soil.