What To Recycle: How To Make Paper Charcoal at Home Out of Unused Newspaper

When there is so much clutter and garbage in the house, and you want to help save the environment, knowing what to recycle can be a bit daunting. Firstly, you do not know where to start or what items should you recycle. Let us take this one by one, starting off with the most common household trash.

Author's Note: This hub is a new one, I previously published a similar hub but deleted it.

Wastes are growing nonstop, even though there is a worldwide campaign to reduce, recycle and reuse. Primitive method is to burn them, but times have changed and we are not allowed to burn wastes anymore. The smoke further damages the ozone, worsening climate change. Landfills are almost full, and incinerators are closed down. For that, we are left with a few options - to minimize our wastes and try to convert these trashes into something useful. But what to recycle?

Newspapers are among the many things that become garbages after a day or two, yet we surely cannot live without them. There are those who collect them and sell them, and earn a meager profit. What can we do, besides selling them, to make use of these junks? Well, we can make paper charcoal from them.

1. Have a basin with you. Fill it with water up to the brim.
2. Tear the unused newspaper into tiny pieces.
3. Soak the paper in the water for about an hour.
4. Get a fistful of the soaked paper and squeeze the remaining water out of it. Try to make paper balls the size of your fist.
5. Dry the paper balls under the sun for two (2) days.
6. Your paper charcoal is done. You can put it in your fireplace. It shouldn't emit smoke.

In the US, most newspapers are printed using soy ink. This does not harm the body. However, some inks are rather synthetic and may pose threat to your health. Do not use the paper charcoal to grill meat, I think there is no study yet on this (although others use it for grilling).

Nowadays, recycling items is a practical and beneficial habit. When you try to survey your homes, you can find a lot of things that you do not need and can be reused. I guess now you know what trash to recycle and how to do it.