Then place layer after layer of soggy paper into the dish. Use your fingers to press the layers together and to force the excess water out of the soggy mass. Pour this excess water out. Stop adding layers when you’ve built a pile that’s about ¾" thick.

     Now we want the compressed pile to dry out. For this demonstration only, let’s speed up the drying process. Let’s use an oven (better check to see if it’s okay to use the oven for this purpose). Bake the pile for about an hour. Oven temperature should be around 200^OF. DON’T USE A MICROWAVE OVEN. Because of the aluminum foil, the microwave tube inside the unit could be damaged.

     After taking the dish out of the oven and after the contents have cooled down, lift the pile out of the dish. If it is still damp, set it aside until completely dry. When dry, chunks of this salvaged waste paper will burn like wood. You can use them in a fireplace, campfire, or whatever.

     When making additional piles, skip the oven part. (You don’t need the baking dish either; use something else.) Simply let the piles dry outside in the aluminum foil liner. It doesn’t make sense to consume more energy using the oven than you get from the fire fuel.