• Recycle newspapers to heat the homes of poor

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    In line with our focus on recycling paper, take a look at 75 year olds’ take on it. An old fellow from Japan has cranked up a method to recycle his old newspapers to heat his home. Shigeru Ota has modified the fundamental method of recycling old newspapers into burnable bricks. Starting off by soaking newspapers in water, he uses a 2-inch wide steel pipe to remove water based on a mechanism similar to that of a ratcheting caulk gun. Once thoroughly dried, the plugs of newsprint resemble standard charcoal briquettes in shape and size. Though such a method may not be viable on a larger scale, at least underprivileged folks can utilize heaps of discarded newsprints to heat up their shelters in chilling times.


    It is estimated that a significant percentage of solid landfill waste is made up of newspapers and other discarded newsprint, which burns with a respectable heating value of 7,883 BTU per pound. To put things in perspective, the roughly 1,400 tons of newsprint discarded every day in North Carolina could replace 883 tons of coal!
    Source

    Posted in Topics:Recycle, Tags: , on December 1, 2008