I have a lot of recycled 4 year old treated lumber from the remodling of our deck--is this wood safe to use for projects such as a cold frame for my vegetable starts?? Would i need to paint it possibly?

Welcome, jacksonia5!

You've got what will soon be an antique there in that treated lumber! As of the end of this year, it's being taken off the market.

EPA finally agreed that CCA (chromium copper arsenic treated) lumber, does, in fact leach arsenic.

I don't think it's a wise idea to use it around edibles of any kind. Painting it may only cause other problems from the paint ingredients leaching into the soil.

Save it for the flower garden, if you have to recycle it. Maybe outline a raised bed of annuals or perennials. Use it to delineate a pathway. Lots of other uses that don't require it to come in contact with edible crops.

Bales of hay or some cinder blocks make good surrounds for cold frames. When you're finished with the hay, you could add it to your compost pile or use it as mulch for your beds. The cinder blocks can always be used for a myriad of other functions in the garden.

gardenz

Virginia Tech is conducting research on the recycling of treated lumber as an alternative to sending it to the dump (where CCA leaches out). This article mentions that if kids will be around it then it should be sealed, so I'm sure the same goes for edibles.
http://www.vt.edu/news/showitem.php?id=1046290879

I can certainly appreciate the impact that discarded CCA lumber may have on our already overcrowded landfills.

Perhaps some preservative coating would help. Maybe on a deck, or a shed or other type outdoor sructure, it could help.

It may be the lesser of two evils. I'd still be reluctant to use even sealed CCA lumber in a veggie bed. It may be easier to just replace it.

gardenz

Oops! I meant to post this after gardenz's second message but I can't move it now. Oh well!


Oh yeah, good catch there gardenz. I made a careless statement! I would actually never use the stuff myself in an outdoor setting (sorry for the implication there!) That article mentions that the old treated lumber contained the same levels of chemicals as new treated lumber. I guess that when you keep it sealed it stays fresh! So that prevents leaching. My husband makes furniture using environmentally friendly materials and he doesn't know of any environmentally friendly outdoor sealers that last long. We just use locust for our outdoor stuff (horse logged, it makes great flooring, too!) So the issue comes down to what to do with it? If it is used in an indoor environment it won't leach but I doubt anyone wants to do that! Maybe outdoor sheds or something similar would be a good use? Sounds like the best idea is to pass the cost of proper disposal on to the consumer doing the disposing. Unlike the disposal of nuclear waste, where the gov't just confiscated a mountain in the southwest and dumped nuclear waste! The cost of that got passed on but not to the right people!

And jacksonia thought this would be any easy questions for a first post! Hope we didn't scare you off!