As a guardian reader with a log burning stove, it seems an obvious synergy to burn the huge pile of paper that collects each week. Here is my simple recipe for paper logs.
To ensure the paper burns slowly and efficiently, it must be made in to a tight roll. Folding the paper in 4 and rolling the sports section first and then the supplement creates a tight core and the rest is easy to roll around that.
Three or four editions roll up to a bundle about 8 cm across. It is then slid in to a wire former to contain it while it burns through. The wire frame is retrieved from the fire and allowed to cool before the next Dry Rolled Newsprint Log (DRNL) is made up.
The former was made from a piece of 2mm (14 SWG) galvanised wire. The prototype Brown DRNL used an old coat hanger and lasted a bit over a year. I knocked 2 nails half in to a seven centimetre dia log, wound the wire round the nails and the log with the help of a heavy duty pair of pliers and a lot of grunting. I then put the log in the stove and retrieved the former and nails when it had all burned away. See:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22755595@N08/sets/72157625558981303
Research
Initially we bought an “Original Logmaker” from the Centre for Alternative Techn
ology. it says
“Easy and safe to use - just soak the paper, place into the mould and squeeze. After complete drying, the log will burn as well as wood …”
We saved a load of paper over the winter, did all the soaking and pressing in the summer. It took weeks for the paper bricks to dry out and they had to be stacked in the wood shed.
The Brown DRNL can be made up from this weeks paper and put straight in to the stove.
Environmental Benefits
A little research indicates that there is not much difference in the environmental impact of burning paper and recycling it.
- Much of our recycled paper is transported large distances from depot to de-inking plant to paper mill so that the energy and pollution balances the value of the recycled fibre.
- I have heard that co-mingled recycled collections results in low grade paper (with contamintion from broken glass) so it has to be burnt anyway.)
- Claiming that wood is a low carbon dioxide source of energy is not universally accepted. Growing trees is a carbon sink and the rest is offsetting!
- Contaminants, such as ink, lead to more pollution in the smoke.
- Making newspapers to support the renewable heat market is not sustainable
- Significant uptake of the use of stove in urban areas will not help air quality.
In the long term, I will finish insulating the house and got the measure of reading the guardian on line.
However, if you want to post some links to online sources of information on these issues, that would be great.
In the words of Rodger MacGough “Although I live in a smokeless zone, I still enjoy the odd woodbine under the stairs”
