How To Recycle Your Old Newspaper To Make Your Own Charcoal
by Cecile Cinco
Oftentimes, the trash that we have the most is used paper. It can be in the form of newspaper, old notebooks, newsprint magazines (separate the glossy paper), manila paper, etc…
What can you do with that lot?
The following instructions will teach you how to make your own charcoal, to make use of your old newspaper and other trashy paper stuff. It is best to do this during summer when the heat of the sun is strongest…and store away in preparation for a rainy day…or when you run out of LPG.
1. Get a basin, fill with water halfway.
2. Shred/tear all collected paper into manageble pieces (about palmsize).
3. Soak paper under water and let stay for an hour.
4. Get a fistful or palmful of soaked and mushy paper, form into a ball while squeezing out water. The size of a ping-pong ball or double is ok.
5. Let it dry under the sun for 2 days (or until very dry).
6. Ready for use just like normal charcoal (It takes double consumption than ordinary charcoal, though).
Then maybe you can save for some las vegas shows. 
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How-To/Tutorial, Recycled, Saving Tips |11 Responses to “How To Recycle Your Old Newspaper To Make Your Own Charcoal”
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I’m a bit worried using it on the bbq because of the fumes from the burning ink. Maybe if pressed using a wide pipe you’d get nice logs for the fireplace.
Well, that’s a thought. I’ve heard, though, that printing inks are now biodegradable.
Yes, a PVC pipe would do great!
depending on what i it is you are recycling you may find that those inks in fact may even contain lead so i would only used this charcoal for the fireplace.
To be on the safer side, I would agree with you.
As far as I’m aware, all newspaper ink in the U.S. is soy based and safe for this use (for regular black and white pages… I wouldn’t use the colored newspaper pages, I think the ink there is petroleum based.
Almost all of the newspapers in the US have been using soy ink for 15+ years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_ink
I tried this and it works! On #4, a good gauge to know if it is fully dried is it’s weight. It should be totally lightweight.
I hope there is a costless process to remove the ink, so it can be an alternative for cooking.
I think there is bleach that is biodegradable. You can use it to “whiten” the paper.
tnx now i can use the old newspaper in our house whiit something useful
hello…I am a researcher and yet a student. I just want to know other recycling methods using old papers instead of producing charcoals..Actually, paper charcoal is quite a clever idea but I m just wondering if the smoke produced by these charcoals is dangerous or not to the atmosphere or to the people living on this planet?
That’s all ..Thank you
If you use non-glossy newspaper (the real newsprint), you will have no problem at all.