im my camp at my piece of land, i have a little desk BBQ i use for cooking, when i have to lit it on, i save the unburned charcoal and ashes using a mesh colander
it separates unburned charcoal from the ashes... i shake it over a plastic bag for ash collecting
and in the colander remains the unburned charcoal.
i reuse this unburned charcoal wich sometimes is nearly the half the little BBQ needs...
then i only need to ad some dry straw as tinder and some more charcoal, and here we go again...
ashes has many uses i use them for washing kitchen stuff (cups, spoon, dish, frypan and hands) it's good removing gease even with cold water