Terracycle's Fire Logs

I get emails from people all over the world wanting me to help sell their products on my blog. Everything from natural pesticides (isn't that an oxymoron) to cloth diapers (hopefully it will be a few years until I start needing to wear them). Generally, I feel that being green is not about buying more stuff. Living green is living simply. But if you have to shop, it's great to try to shop more responsibly with the earth on your mind.

George over at Terracycle sent me an email announcing the company's newest recycled product and offering to let me give it a whirl. You may already know that I am a huge fan of Terracycle and their worm poop... Spray some worm poop on your plants or lawn and watch them smile...

Maybe I would be a fan of Terracycle's new firelogs?

Two days later a neat little box of logs arrived on my doorstep. That same day, Hubby was feeling down in the dumps about the end of the warm weather and the beginning of the long-dark nights. A late-season cookout seemed like the perfect remedy. Veggie burgers, beer and an outdoor fire. We even invited the Dynamite family and their onion dip over to join us.

Presently, there is no way to recycle wax cardboard. The friendly people at Terracycle decided to gather-up wax cardboard that was bound for the landfill and pack it into a log shape. No more cutting down trees, let's use-up the wax cardboard we already have.

The directions ask you to leave the wrapper on the logs when you burn them (even less waste!), but I of course had to sneak a peak.

Unwrapping the logs completely isn't directed unless you have an excited five year-old setting-up.

Kindling isn't nessasary. Another case of a five year-old helper.

As someone with outdoor allergies, it used to be torture to sit anywhere near a wood-fueled fire. Stuffy, sneezing, itching. Not worth it. No worries with these logs. I was able to warm my tootsies and breathe all at the same time. Amazing.

Terracycle's firelogs are supposed to burn for three hours. In my experiment, the logs really burned well for two hours and then smoldered for the last hour. Pretty good when compared to wooden logs. As for the waste left over after burning, I just tossed it in the compost bin. That counts as brown matter. Right?

The final decision is a big YES. Allergies will make me suffer during those summer neighborhood fires no more. Not to mention the savings to my neighbors now that my father won't have to liberate logs from their personal wood piles. If the wax cardboard is already in existence, go ahead and burn it instead of loosing another tree.