*Recycled Firestarters*
By: Kachina
18 January 2006

In the many years that I was a Girl Scout Leader it never failed; every single campout we went on it rained. Starting fires was always a challenge and many leaders opted to take the girls home instead of teaching them what they need to do to "make it through". My girls always wanted to stay, so we did. In problem solving our fire starting issues, we came across information (from an on-line leader resource site) that made a neat little firestarter that required only three ingredients: empty egg carton, dryer lint and old candle stubs or bits of wax crayons. Because I try to recycle as much as I can, these three items were not difficult to come by. It took very little time to make these firestarters and my kids and I have made them to have on hand in case we need them here. Here are the steps to making these handy little starters:

1. Prepare site but protecting counter top with aluminum foil.
2. Remove the top of the egg carton; leaving only the cup portion
3. Fill each "cup" with dryer lint
4. Melt candle stubs/wax crayon pieces, using a double-boiler. Use caution as wax can catch fire very easily
5. Once melted, pour the wax over each of the egg cups, completely saturating each
6. Let dry

Once these are dry, they are very easy to break apart and store in ziploc baggies. We have used these for outdoor fires in both wet and dry conditions and we have yet to have them fail. They also keep for a long time.
Kachina

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