Upcycle your coffee grounds into a homemade fire-starter

Here is a DIY project that provides an easy and clean way to get your fire blazing. It incorporates used coffee grounds, is simple to make, and takes around 15 minutes or less from start to finish. Each fire-starter should burn for about 20 minutes, enough time to get even the most resistant blaze going. These fire-starters make excellent gifts and or stocking stuffers for the fireplace enthusiast in your life!

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What you will need

• Small paper cups — (medicine cups, Dixies, or upcycled egg cartons)

• 4 – 12 tablespoons of dried coffee grounds (the amount will vary based on cup size and the number of fire-starters)

• Wicks

• 2 – 8 ounces of wax (soy wax chips were used here, but you can recycle old candle wax if that is available to you)

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Directions

1) Melt a small amount of wax in a saucepan. Center a wick in your small cup (or each “cup” of your egg carton) and pour just enough wax to cover the bottom of the wick. Allow the wax to cool. If you are using an upcycled egg carton, do not separate out the egg cups.

2) Fill your cups approximately 95% full of coffee grounds.

3) Melt about 2 ounces of wax in a saucepan. Once the wax is melted remove the pan from the heat. Gently pour the wax into your cup.  The coffee grounds will absorb the melted wax, so you may need to repeat this process.

4) Let the completed fire-starter cool. If you used an egg carton, separate your egg cups once cooled.

5) Place the fire-starter underneath your logs and ignite. Each fire-starter should burn for approximately 20 minutes — enough time to get a lovely blaze roaring!

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