[quote=Harvey Lankford][quote=saltydog] Paper leaves a trace of ash and plastic leaves nothing [/quote]
salty, I have always heard that one should not burn trash, food scraps, etc. but carry them out. One individual's small residue multiplied by that of others is enough to attract animals and habituate them to the campsite (and so they return again to the next camper who may not burn anything)
I don't know if there is a Forest/Park service reg about this subject, but this is the first thing I Googled:
[url=http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm04232327/index.htm]Don't burn trash[/url] [/quote]
And excellent advice that is, as far as it goes. And an excellent point to bring up. The link you supplied is well worth looking into, as it illustrates two things: first, the wide range of completely inappropriate material that people will try to burn: batteries, foil, diapers.
Second, what a lousy incinerator a conventional campfire makes. Note that even the flammable plastics were usually reduced to partially combusted blobs of either raw plastic, or tarry compounds, also indicating only partial conversion.
The two stage gasifier ( of which the Cutie is a simple version) uses a different process from the typical campfire. In the gasifier, all the organics are pyrolised (broken down to much simpler compounds by heat) in the fuel layer. then secondary air is introduced to these hot fumes and they combust completely in the flame layer. The reason that plastic residue is left behind in the campfire is that the flame consuming the most volatile gasses (largely H and CO from the wood) uses all the available oxygen, which never reaches much of the plastic and leaves it only partially converted or just melted.
In the little gasifier, however, everything is gasified and then mixed with air, completing the conversion .
A second advantage of the stove is that if something does go wrong - i.e. there is some residue - it is in the stove and not in a fire ring. If the concern is over paper ash, that can be packed out with the rest of your unburnables. It has negilgible weight
I always repackage even store-bought food, so I never have foil, mylar, etc food packaging. I only ever end up with paper or poly bags, both of which convert completely in the gasifier.
Now, I'm not saying that this requires that any rule against burning trash not be considered to apply to this stove, or allows us to ignore any rules just because this stove is different: all that I am saying is that the reasons for any ban do not apply, the conversation ought to at least be started considering the soundness of gasifying trash vs burning in a campfire.
Another reason to gasify the combustible trash - if it can be proven to be clean and sound - is that it supplies heat and reduces the amount of other fuel required to be consumed.
Other merits of the burn itself - organic matter conservation, carbon etc, discussed below in response to D.
