stove

Call me crazy again, but I don't want to throw one thing in the garbage. Garbage is what gets hauled off to the landfill. Garbage is what gets improperly disposed of. I already mentioned, somewhere in these posts, that I would like to avoid buying anything wrapped in plastic. I'll have to go over the reasons for that again, somewhere. But here I want to talk about a different kind of trash I don't want to throw in the garbage, paper trash.

It's true that a certain amount of paper trash can be recycled. I just put it in the recycling bin, and I have at least some confidence it actually will be recycled. I don't think that's a completely satisfactory solution - and one reason these solutions aren't satisfactory is that no one is really saying what actually happens to these materials - if we were very serious about being a zero waste and zero pollution society, we would insist on really knowing such things - but, OK. It's not the worst part of our waste culture. But there's also this: some of our paper waste will not be recycled, or that's what I suspect. Properly speaking, it should be composted, but that won't happen either. What'll happen is, it'll go to the landfill. I find that unacceptable.

Here's what I want to do: I want to burn that kind of trash. It would be nice if our trash handling systems, or industry, did it for us, in the most responsible way, and I should discuss what that would be, but I doubt it does today, and I don't think it's very likely to start.

What I want to do is burn my own non-recyclable paper trash. I've tried composting it, but I couldn't keep up. I could really get it composted.

The proper way to burn it is to stock a hearth with a good bit of highly combustible wood - kindling, broken twigs and small branches, of certain kinds of wood that burn energetically - and mix in the trash to be burnt. This mixture will burn very fast and very hot, and consequently, very clean. Very little smoke will be emitted. It's an environmentally friendly concept, even for use in the city, although I'm sure it will elicit howls of protest.

What is required, really, is a proper hearth. I've experimented with this, but my hearth is too small. I'm trying to think how to get a bigger one.

What's required is a cylinder, somewhat voluminous, perhaps two feet in diameter and five feet tall, made of a material that will not become excessively hot, and that will not be too easily destroyed by the heat. Actually, fire brick would be good.