Housewives earn extra income making 'paper charcoal'

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines — After a hard day’s work, Glo asks for an additional “compensation” from families she works for as a live-out laundrywoman.

The “bonus” that she requests is not much, though — old newspapers.

Once asked why, “Gloria labandera” said she makes charcoal briquettes out of them.

Fact is, this young housewife who makes the rounds washing clothes for a number of families in Los Baños is among those who have been trained to make charcoal briquettes out of old newspapers. Briquette is a mixture of charcoal made from various materials molded in various shapes and sizes with the use of a starch or binder.

The creator of the new briquette, Florentino Montemayor Jr., has named it “Don King Uling,” a take-off from a noted doughnut because it is shaped like the popular bread product.

It is made of old newspapers, cartolina, kraft papers, and other types of used paper except the glossy ones.

The materials are soaked in water overnight, shredded, and compacted with the use of a pressing machine also devised by Montemayor, a retired official of a multinational corporation and now barangay councilor of Batong Malake, Los Baños.

“The product is used as a substitute for wood as charcoal fuel,” said Montemayor.

Montemayor and his colleagues conceived the project particularly for informal settlers and poor barangay families who use charcoal stoves in cooking their food.

The Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) eventually supported the project in view of, among other things, its environment-friendly quality.

As multi-awarded FPRDI engineer-researcher Belen Bisana has attested: “The advantage of using the paper briquette in cooking is primarily the utilization of waste papers. Using the product is also an economical and practical thing. Briquettes can last for longer period compared to wood fuel.”

In an interview with The STAR, Montemayor said about 300 housewives have been trained on how to make the newspaper-based charcoal briquette.

Also, since early last year when Don King Uling was conceived, hundreds of families have been using it as more pressing machines were fabricated and sold at affordable cost to barangay settlers.

Batong Malake officials have also been helping sell the pressing machines to further spread its use.

A student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños-College of Development Communication (UPLB-CDC) had also studied the technology’s communication aspect.

In her report, Kathleen Lungub quoted the barangay officials as saying: “With the growing number of briquette users, we do not only help the people save money, we also help in the conservation of forests in the long term.”

One of the technology users, 53-year-old Merlie Casipe, also said: “Mas magandang gamitin ang papel na panggatong dahil mas maningas. Makakatipid ka dahil mabilis mag-apoy, nakakabawas ka pa ng basura.”

Montemayor told this writer that a paper briquette is sold at P10 per kilo (eight pieces). Four briquettes can cook a cup of rice.

Don King Uling is cheaper than a kilo of wood charcoal (P20).

The Batong Malake committee on livelihood headed by Montemayor regularly (at least once a week) do house-to-house visits in communities to demonstrate and promote the use of the portable pressing machine and scrap paper briquette.

Want to adopt the simple technology, too?