Desertification, environmental pollution: How households can substitute firewood with briquettes – expert

By Uthman Abubakar

Households may have to start making briquettes with wastes to substitute firewood for their cooking, as a potent weapon against climate change, desertification and environmental pollution.

The Director-General, Borno State Agency for Great Green Wall, Amb. Usman Aliyu, made this suggestion in a chat with NatureNews in Maiduguri, recently.

“Apart from checking deforestation and its attendant disasters of desert encroachment and global warming, briquettes are more affordable to households and environment-friendly,” he posited, explaining, “instead of 10 pieces of firewood, five briquettes can cook your food.”

The DG continued explaining the advantages of household briquettes making, saying, “it is a veritable weapon against environmental pollution, because the wastes that should have caused the pollution are gathered and processed into briquettes.”

Amb Aliyu explained how households can use wastes to manufacturer briquettes for their domestic use.

“Gather the waste, compress it with any instrument that can do so well, burn it, not to 100 percent, but yo about 70 percent, grind it, but not to complete four form, but to chaff form, scoop the chaff into your preferred sizes of moulds; then use any form of burnable binder, like elubo flour; then dry them – you have made briquettes,” he described.

Amb Aliyu posited: “Desert encroachment is the result of climate change, and climate change is a result of our social and economic activities, which include felling trees to make charcoal as an economic enterprise and for firewood for cooking.”

He pleaded with households to adopt this method of recycling waste to make briquettes to help in the fight against climate change, desertification and environmental pollution.