How to Make Your Own DIY Fire Logs Out of Recycled Newspaper (Video)

Burning wood for heat has several advantages: it's cheap, it burns hot and it's relatively better suited to places that are off-the-grid and rurally located. But some rightly argue that wood-burning is sustainable only if some -- not everyone -- is cutting trees down as firewood, so we were pleasantly surprised to come across this idea for making your own burnable firebricks -- out of recycled newspaper!

Seen over at Survivopedia, a "prepper" site, paper log bricks could be a major help during a major disaster, when firewood may be scarce. Here's the basic run-down: recycled paper is either shredded or kept whole, and then moistened and mixed into a pulp, and either rolled or molded into forms using simple things like a cake pan punctured with holes to let the water out. After properly drying them, the paper bricks are ready to use; they are dense like regular firewood and require kindling to set them alight.

Apparently there are molds out there that you can purchase that are specifically used for making fire bricks out of paper, just like in the video below. We found one similar to the one shown, if you know of another decent supplier, or have burned these homemade logs yourself, let us know in the links below!

For the full tutorial, check out Survivopedia.