Another way we can alter the chain of slashing and burning for firewood is education. Charcoal can be made easily with waste from sugar cane begasse, coconut husks, banana peels, corn cobs and a variety of other organic byproducts. Anyone can make this wood-free briquette and plans are already underway to introduce both household and larger-scale use in the department of the south. Boasting hotter temperatures and a longer burning time than traditional wood charcoal, these briquettes are hard to beat.

The problem at this point is that old habits are hard to break and unlike in Haiti and Africa where this is already in practice there is a seeming abundance of wood here. The use of trees on making charcoals has been a major factor that contributes to the climate change in developing countries especially East Africa. Thousands of tones of trees have been cut and the trend is still going on, despite the efforts made by different governments in the region to stop people from this long rooted behavior of cutting trees for charcoal making.

Materials needed:

Organic materials usually thrown away such as coconut husks, bagasse from sugarcane, corn cobs, or the roots of vetiver grass

Dry leaves

Soil with high clay content

Steel drum with a series of 4" holes spaced around the bottom and a cover

The process is even easy and takes common items that are easy to come by. The Process:

1. Fill the steel drum with the organic material and dry leaves. Light and let burn, covered, for approximately forty-five minutes. Let contents fully cool.
2. Mix the ash with clay-like soil. Hands are the best tools for mashing up the ingredients!
3. Press mixture into briquette mold. Use a blunt object to hammer the mixture into the mold for a firm briquette. Remove and allow to dry thoroughly before using.


Making briquettes from banana peels takes a slightly different approach. The banana peels are collected and then sun dried and half burned you don’t allow them to burn complete and then you pour water in semi burned banana peels to get carbonate which are sheaved then those black powdered material that will come out during sheaved process, are mixed with clay soil or mica soils and finally mixed with cassava flour. This could also be done using the pulp from the calabash gourd.

I've seen two types of molds to press briquettes. One was made with a steel pipe and a round plate with a stem welded on it. The most effective one was one made out of square steel stock and one end had two strips of steel welded over the opening to hold a plate inside leaving the center open. Another square plate just big enough to fit inside the square stock would be set over that. Then your mixture and another square piece with a metal stem would be put over the mixture and hammered down to compact the mixture. When it was compacted, the tamping plate is pulled out and the stem is put on the other side in the center to push the briquette out.