What can one say about a family man who burns his plastic waste on a barbecue and then cooks meat right there? Or the neighbour who loads the door of a varnished cabinet into a sauna stove, releasing such a deadly cocktail into the air that a doctor and a chemist would clutch their hearts in horror. These are not made-up examples, nor is there any need for them to be, as burning is still a common method of disposing of household waste in Latvia. Perhaps many do not even stop to think about what remains in the fire from a glossy magazine, a polythene bag or even a smouldering pile of leaves.