Empty iso-Butane canisters - How to dispose? - moved from Q&A

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Papa Bear

New member
Joined
Sep 3, 2003
Messages
1,922
Reaction score
176
Location
New York City
Empty iso-Butane canisters - How to dispose?

I have a collection of empty or nearly empty Iso-Butane canisters that have accumulated over the years. They are the 8 oz MSR type I use with my pocket rocket.

I never felt I should just throw them in the trash, since there is at least a remnant and perhaps a significant remnant of gas left in them.

What do you folks do? Is there an approved way to throw them out? Do any outdoor suppliers provide a recycling service?

Thanks
 
PB, my recycling center takes in old Propane "grill" tanks and has taken a few of my MSR ones.

I also try to use mine up (at home making tea or something) but there does always seem to be some remnant. You can empty the gas by leaving the valve cracked (happened to me by mistake on a trip). I wonder how bad it is ... versus the carbons released by burning it? Maybe crack them open under some soil, them carefully retrieve them a few days later? To quote one of the great actors of our generation: "It's not easy being green..."
 
Take a trip to VT and camp in a VT State Park. They have a barrel with all their recycling stuff just for those. My problem is I don't remember to bring them. I like to do just a few at a time so it's not too obvious.
I can't find anywhere near home that take them.
 
Check with your local MUA/waste authority. Twice a year, my local MUA has a hazardous waste and electronics disposal day. I take my empty canisters and they accept them no questions asked. Of course, I have to store them until waste day rolls around.
 
Here's what I do. Attach the stove, turn it on, and leave it for an hour or so. This pretty much equalizes the pressure. Then, with a can opener.. The kind that one used to use to open beer, but no is only good for tomato juice cans... I pierce a hole in the canister.
 
Thanks PB for asking this question, which I have also wondered about. Terri, I was also at a Vermont State Park this past weekend. (See my TR) I'm an idiot for not checking with "the gang" to see what everyone was doing. Sorry...

Leave it to Pete to come up w/ an "innovative" solution...

Matt
 
Pete, can you send me your NP trailguide and Discover magazines as well as the TI ADK map so I can recreate what you did with yours. I already have a can opener, which is what looks like you did to yours. :)

Most of my Iso-butane canisters get donated to other hikes because of the fuel-plane restriction!

Jay
 
I would say ditch the pocket rocket and get a whisperlite - reusable fuel bottles - less waste. AND no need to dispense unused fuel into the atmosphere when disposing of the old iso-butane canister.
my 2 cents.
 
IndianChris said:
I would say ditch the pocket rocket and get a whisperlite
I have bothA, and use them in different situations. Each have their plusses and minuses.
. AND no need to dispense unused fuel into the atmosphere when disposing of the old iso-butane canister.
Well, it's probably no more than you get from that little spray you get when de-pressurising the pumped up fuel bottle.... and you do that each time you finish a trip (at least)
 
empty pounders

For years, well actually decades, I've been throwing away in my trash "empty" 1 pound coleman propane fuel cylinders that I use when car camping. Back in the old days these would end up in the dump, but today Maine doesn't have dumps. So for a while they where ending up in the land fill, but Maine's landfills are pretty much full and the State won't allow any new ones. Sooooooo today we have "Transfer Stations". I guess my empty pounders just get transfered around and around and around...

I miss watching the bears at the local dump.

Onestep
 
onestep said:
....1 pound coleman propane fuel cylinders that I use when car camping. ...
To use my method with these, you need a gun. A can opener won't do it.


IndianChris said:
I have both, and use them in different situations. Each have their plusses and minuses.
esplain please.
Pocket rocket is light, and FAST to set up and put away. No priming. No mess (I even will use it in a hotel room). I tend to use it on short trip, when traveling on a plane, or on bicycle trips. I can have my water boiled in the same time it takes to set-up and prime my Whisperlite. Oh yeah.. And it simmers better.

WhisperLite is better for longer cooking, longer trips, larger pots, less expensive to run. I tend to use this more often than the PocketRocket.

BTW, don't google PocketRocket. You won't find anything about stoves.
 
This morning I brought a spent container to my local transfer station. I was told that as long as the pressure was totally released and I dropped it in the proper bin, disposal would be permitted.
 
I put mine into recycling and I'm always sure they're reasonably empty. I do this by numbering each isobutane cannister with a felt tip marker as I buy it (the numbering continues from my last cannister) and always start cooking with the lowest numbered cannister. If I'm backpacking and know that I've already used part of the lowest numbered canister I'll skip it and save it for car camping.
 
I tend to use it on short trip, when traveling on a plane, or on bicycle trips.
Prior to the latest events in the UK, were you able to travel with the iso-butane fuel canisters (or even the stove itself) on a plane? It does seem like a nice little stove to travel around with though.
 
IndianChris said:
Prior to the latest events in the UK, were you able to travel with the iso-butane fuel canisters (or even the stove itself) on a plane? It does seem like a nice little stove to travel around with though.
Butane stove, yes (no fuel), butane cannisters: no.

Carrying fuel on an aircraft has been prohibited since well before 9/11.

Doug
 
Top