Ever since ‘mail marketing’ took off in the early nineties, I’ve been getting a steadily increasing volume of useless paper pushed through my door.

This paper is invariably immediately binned and stored in a box in the garage prior to being carted off for recycling. Now, call me cynical but I’m pretty sure some of the recycled paper ends up going to our local Urban Waste Renewal centre (aka incinerator).

This paper will, of course, burn nicely yet rather too quickly to derive useful heat. That is, until you compress it into useful ‘logs’ or ‘bricks’. It just so happens that there are already paper-fuel-log presses on the market! The first type relies on you soaking all your paper and turning it into a sort of mulch before putting it in the press and squeezing it down. The second type uses torn-up paper, pressed down and bound by a sheet of newspaper. Obviously, the ‘wet’ kind is rather laborious but probably produces more compressed and therefore slower burning logs whereas the ‘dry’ method logs would perhaps burn a little less efficiently.

The wet log maker available for purchase seems to have a somewhat compromised design which is intended to fit into retail packaging rather than offer the best leverage. It could be possible to modify or even scratch-build a press with longer levers to reduce the necessary effort when pressing the logs. Anecdotal tales of logs made with this system suggest the will burn for one to two hours so you may need rather more paper than you would straight-forward wooden logs.

Of course, it’s not just the junk that gets delivered directly to your door that you can burn, there are plenty of other sources of fuel which would otherwise be thrown out or ‘recycled’. For a start, I defy you to find a microwave meal that doesn’t come with some sort of cardboard packaging, even bottle of beer are sometimes bound in cardboard. Then there’s your newspaper. Reportedly 1 newspaper will produce one log or brick so if you have a paper every day, that’s six to seven logs a week for a start. Then there’s all your old bank statements and personal information which you wouldn’t want falling into the wrong hands. If you have a suitable supplier (a wood shop or even a DIY mad friend) you can also augment your fuel with wood shavings.

My personal recommendation is that you do not burn these logs on an open fire. There’s the potential for the printing inks to produce somewhat noxious fumes and the same goes for vinylised/plasticised papers. A better idea would be one of those smart-looking solid-fuel fireplace stoves which have a flue going directly up the chimney. These stoves have a vent control on the front to help regulate the burning of materials.

Your average 1930s semi will probably have a good sized fireplace. Unfortunately, with the vagaries of ‘property-shows’ on TV, it’s probably been bricked up (or just hidden behind MDF). Still if you can dig it out you’ve got a means to heat your home. You’ll want to get a chimney sweep in before you fire it as extant creosote deposits on the inside of the chimney have the potential to ignite causing a chimney-fire which is dangerous to say the least.

I estimate that the average UK family home will be receiving sufficient fuel for two to three fires a week. Just think, that’s two to three days that you can at least partially heat your home for free*

*You do, of course, have to put in a bit of effort to make your logs but it should be good excercise