How green is a barbeque?

After a lovely, sunny bank holiday weekend consisting of 3 barbeques, 1 hosted by moi and 2 by friends, my boyfriend gave me a mild rebuke regarding my love of barbeques considering that they 'are not exactly environmentally friendly'.

I must confess that I do love bbqs, mainly just because of the fact that I get to spend more time outside, chilling in the sun with a beverage, which seems a much more pleasant way to cook when the weather is warm and the evenings are long. However, I hadn't honestly considered the 'green' concerns. As always, the internet saves the day with some useful information on how to green your bbq. Thankfully, I've not come across any sites which have vetoed them outright which is encouraging, as I'm not sure I could manage that.

Ethical Super Store stock 'BioRegional HomeGrown FSC Certified Charcoal' which is a good start, ie making sure that the charcoal you use is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. I was quite chuffed to come across a tip on Planet Green's 'How to go Green: Barbeque' pages which my family have always done, not because it's green but because it's very effective and that is to use a raw onion sliced in half to clean the grill rather than a chemical spray of some sort.

Sierra Magazine's website also has some great green bbq tips in their article, The Green Life: Get your grill on.

So it seems that bbqs are allowed, which is cool as I've already been to 3 and Summer has only just begun....

Update: The Telegraphs' eco-friendly barbeques articles states that the following sell charcoal with the FSC logo: Waitrose (Big K brand), Morrisons (own label 'Instant Light' only); Co-Op (own label), Asda (own label). This is quite an old article though so there are probably more available now. Waitrose definately still sell the Big K Brand, which is still FSC certified.