Last week I went on a school trip to the Zero Waste Zone in Henderson. I thoroughly recommend going for a visit if you’re in the area, it’s a very well run facility and the ladies there were incredibly knowledgeable. I loved their up-cycled garden, complete with a worm farm in a bath, a people-powered water feature, and a sculpture made out of rubbish bins.

While I was there I got to thinking about other ways to use up old newspapers, corrugated card board, non-glossy magazines and other used paper products.

Instead of putting them in the recycle bin, they can be easily made into bricks right at home, after drying the bricks can be used in an outdoor pizza oven or fire. All you need is this nifty briquette maker from Mitre 10 for $29.96, a bucket, oxy bleach (also on sale this week), and some water.

Once you’ve got a briquette maker, it’s easy. All you do is rip old newspapers (no gloss) and throw them in a large bucket or old garbage bin to half way. Fill the rest with water, stir occasionally and leave for a few days, to speed up the process you can add a tablespoon of oxygen bleach (if you’re using a bucket and 2 tablespoons if using a rubbish bin) and stir it in well.

After a few days all you have to do is scoop out the pulp, give it a good squeeze in the briquette maker and out come little bricks. You then have to leave them to dry for about a month in a very dry place. And that’s it, what a great way to recycle, right at home!

If you’d like an instructional video take a look at this one ‘The Eco Paper Log Maker’ . The guy in this video suggests using bleach but don’t do that as it’s not very eco, use our Oxy Bleach instead.

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