posted 9 years ago
I process all paper and cardboard coming onto our site, mostly for burning since I've concluded that using it for mulch just doesn't work in my climate or situation. I follow the old idea of Mollison's that the ideal way is to deal with something on site if you bring it onto your site, rather than exporting it somewhere else. Tight papers like magazines and catalogues just get wrapped tightly and tied with a bit of wire. Corrugated cardboard gats torn or cut up into say 1 foot square pieces and soaked in water for a few days till the layers will peel apart, then this is laid out in strips on a concrete floor, with miscellaneous paper laid on top of it, then more wet cardboard, and so on, and then a "batch" gets rolled up tightly, sometimes starting out around a stick, and then tied off with whatever and set in the sun to dry. Once dry, the ties aren't really necessary, though I try to wrap wire around them before burning just so they don't unroll quickly and last longer. So all of the paper and cardboard coming in finds a final yield as fuel and ash. These paper/cardboard logs are ideal when a moderate amount of relatively long-lasting heat is desired....they will stay going for a couple of hours at least in a well dampered-down stove. About 90% of what comes in is ordinary cardboard and office white paper, so I'm not worried about the contaminants in colored inks.... Two years in doing this, with 50 plus 3" or so diameter "logs" being used each season, among other firewood, and I don't see any increase in the soot or creosote in my stovepipe. I think this makes more sense in a mild, wood-scarce climate like mine. The average household's intake of paper and cardboard would be a fractional contribution to heating in a cold-winter climate, whereas for me it might be about 20%......