I rarely throw things away, I like to be able to find a use for anything and everything that would otherwise head to landfill. Paper is a huge waste in my opinion, I’ve collected my fair share of it from school, and from junk mail over the years. I’ve just been piling it up in boxes waiting for the next camping trip so I could burn them, at least getting some usage out of them.

But I thought I’d take it to the next level and turn it into a firelog. When I was younger we used to have fires at home with Duraflame logs, but why spend money on something you’re literally going to light on fire? So I decided to make my own.

I started by filling a Tupperware container with water. This is definitely not the best way to do this, but I didn’t have any other options (such as drilling holes in the bottom to drain water), so I just started filling the container. The entire box on the left managed to fit in just over half of the container, with enough effort. As I put the papers in, I’d let them soak for a bit and then rip them up with my hands. I would have used a mixer, but I would’ve needed to use a bucket outside since it would make a mess in this case.

After the bin was full, I poured the water out into the toilet and compressed the paper with another same size container to squeeze out the water. I just repeated the last steps over again and combined the 2 paper loads into 1 compressed block. I did this in March and it was still pretty cold out but I left it outside to dry during the day. I didn't have a proper bucket with holes in the bottom to drain the water so it was basically completely saturated. But after a couple days it dried out.

And also, I didn't have any more trash papers from school now, so I started collecting junk mail and other packaging, and I also took a different approach to creating them this time. I made this box out of random pieces of wood that I drilled holes in the bottom so the water can be squeezed out. It also creates much smaller bricks which is... far more practical.