zerowaste

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Discussing ways to reduce waste and build community!

Celebrate thrift as a virtue, talk about creative ways to make do, or show off how you reused something!

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Save your Styrofoam to make napalm. And no, napalm isn't what you think. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by shalafi@lemmy.world to c/zerowaste

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

First off, homemade napalm is in no way illegal, nor does it explode. You've watched too many Vietnam movies. What it does do is burn. Forever. More on campfires to come.

Put a couple of fingers of unleaded in a pickle (wide mouthed) jar, stuff waste Styrofoam in it. You can jam the contents of a 40" TV packaging in a quart jar.

That's it, that easy. Keep cramming the foam in until you get a taffy consistency. Too much and it's too hard to dig out with a stick. Too little and it slips off your stick.

I keep a jar at my campsite and one in the house for starting our little fire pit. A golf ball chunk will start soaking wet kindling.

PRO TIP: Spread the goo on a cookie pan, 1.4" thick, let it dry in the summer sun, cut into little pieces with scissors, put it in a little plastic box (that you had saved already, right?). Now you can pack it out with no mess, no smell!

Never goes bad, as far as I know, can't be too dry.

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[–] Guenther_Amanita 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

"Napalm" is usually considered as a weapon. What you meant is probably just "emergency firestarter", or as I would call it, turbo-tinder :D

I personally prefer using cotton pads, that are soaked in liquid candle wax. When it's cold, it hardens and the whole pad gets stiff and hydrophobic.

Instead of having to lift a glass jar, you can just slip a few of those discs into your pocket or a small bag.

And because the wax is hard, you don't have to worry about storage, and they will stay that way forever. With your polystyrene goo, you have to remember that the jar will never be 100% gas tight and it will evalorate over time.

The pads even work when wet (because they won't get wet) and can be used with a ferrocerium rod.

Also, styrofoam releases toxic gases when ignited, wax won't.

[–] Dindonmasker@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

Tbf the point of this is to try and make a big pile of trash into something more useful. It's not great but it's something.

[–] Gormadt 10 points 1 day ago

This

If you've ever smelt burning styrofoam vs burning cotton the difference is night and day.

I like my emergency fire starters to keep forever as having to remember to maintain them means I'll forget to.

[–] MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

How do you make those? Is it just dipping cotton pads in wax?

[–] Guenther_Amanita 4 points 1 day ago

The key thing is to only slightly coat them. If you smear too much on them, they won't ignite that easily.

But yeah. The wax should be very runny and hot, so it gets soaked up by the pad. And then heat it, so it re-melts, for example with a very hot heating gun or baking oven.

And when you want to use it, just tear the cotton apart a bit, so the fibers get exposed, and it will ignite instantly.

I like it more than petrol jelly, because it's hardened and not as sticky.