How To Turn Newspaper Into Fire Logs

If like me you’re always getting newspapers shoved through your letter box, you’ll notice it doesn't take long before you've got a stack of them.

There is not much in them by the way of news and you just end up passing them on to the recycling centre.

But today I want to show you how to turn your newspaper into fire logs, so let’s go.

Our first step is to shred the newspaper up, this is actually quite a therapeutic process so take out any anger you've got on the paper.

Next we’re going to need a bucket, to which we are adding our torn newspaper, a little bit of detergent and some hot water.

To pulverise the paper further I'm going to be using a dish brush, it’s stiff bristles make short work of the soggy paper.

The hot water and detergent help remove the bulk of the dye, as you will see this gets suspended in the water itself.

The paper being in water and mulched up with our brush, help break up the fibres holding the newspaper together.

These fibres get broken up and become shorter every time you do this process, which is why newspaper can only be recycled 5 - 7 times, before the fibres become too short to form a bond.

In the paper recycling process new fibres from fresh materials are added and fibres that are too small to form a paper bond, are filtered away to become fuel and fertiliser.

If we were going to make fresh paper, we would have to use a lot of chemicals to get it up to scratch. But we are following the journey of turning it into fuel instead.

The simplest way of making your newspaper kindling, is to use some muslin or a similar material with closely woven fibres. This is to trap the paper but allow the water to drain.

Now form this paper pulp into shapes, either by using your hands or using an empty container as a shape former. Then just give your newspaper enough time to dry before you use it as kindling.

If you want a more uniform way of making these paper logs, I've come up with a paper log making gun. You can make it to different lengths depending on how long you want your paper logs to be.

If you want to build this for yourself and support our channel, then you can get the plans here patreon.com/GoRepairs

I cut a 4g slice off the newspaper fire log and dipped it in some waste vegetable oil - it burnt for over ten minutes.

We've learnt some basics about recycling paper, hopefully you have a better understanding about some of the process.

So if you enjoyed this video and want to see more about learning and making stuff, then please support us by subscribing to our channel.

I've been your host Paul, you've been watching Go Repairs and I’ll see you next time - bye.