January 21st, 2011 
Tushar Mathur Choosing an environmentally-responsible heating solution for your home or garden can go a long way towards cutting your fuel bills, reducing your carbon footprint, and making your home more eco-friendly. Wood-burning stoves are great inside and cast iron and clay chimineas make very efficient and attractive patio heaters. However, while these seem like potentially eco-friendly heating options, it’s worth taking into account the fuel you’re going to be burning in them.
Wood, while a viable option, isn’t always readily available and you must be careful to select timber which is properly seasoned, is untreated, and has been taken from a sustainable and renewable source. Fortunately, there are more reliable – and cleaner – alternatives.
You can find heat or eco logs at very reasonable prices, and they’re made from 100% waste sawdust, so they don’t contain any harmful chemicals or binding agents, and, unlike wood, will not release particulates or creosote (which tend to accumulate in the inside of your stove chimney or chiminea). They also produce very little ash, a small amount of which can be added to your compost heap for a potassium boost.
If you’d rather make your own fuel, you can pick up a Logmaker (versions made from recycled plastics are also available) for making fire-ready logs from general household and garden waste.
The beauty of using garden waste as fuel is that it’s carbon-neutral, the plants absorbing as much carbon in their growth as they’ll release when burned, and there’s no need to worry about damage done to the environment through packaging or transportation since the fuels are coming from just outside your door. Inside the house, you can pick up a surprising amount of combustible waste in the form of junk mail, sensitive documents, and cardboard. These materials would either end up in the landfill or would need to be shredded or recycled. Apply a little common sense and you’ll find a wealth of potential fuel around your home and garden. Try shredded paper, junk mail, cereal packets, egg-boxes, torn up toilet roll tubes, teabags, wood shavings, sawdust, dry leaves, twigs, and dry plant clippings.
Depending on the type of Logmaker you buy, you can either make dry paper logs, ready for burning right away or for storing, or more compact and versatile wet-and-dry logs from soaked and compacted waste. These wet-and-dry logs will need to be left to dry before use, but when they’re ready, you can store them in a dry place for later. Both types of logs should burn for approximately one hour, depending on their composition. Glossy magazines should be avoided as they result in an extremely dense log and may release harmful chemicals when burned. If you want to burn green garden waste, simply allow it to dry for a few days in the sun (or ventilated under clear plastic in the winter) before use.
Burning household and garden waste is a great way of getting useful energy and heat out of something you would have ordinarily either thrown away or which would have gone on the compost heap. Not only is it a good source of free fuel, it’s a viable alternative to recycling since you’re converting the energy into a useful form – heating your home or garden!
Laura Phillips is an ecofriendly living enthusiast and writes for Chiminea Shop
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