Evergreen Park student recycling paper into warmth for homeless people

Chicago Tribune

22-04-2025

Evergreen Park Community High School student Billy Duffner started creating paper bricks to fuel backyard bonfires last summer when he formed an idea to use the homemade fuel packages to help those in need.
He's started making more of the bricks and distributing them as part of a larger effort to provide warmth to people experiencing homelessness on cold nights, and even as a fuel for cooking.
The effort is something Duffner is doing on his own, not part of a service project at EPCHS, where he is a senior. But the school is plenty proud of him.
'Everyone throws out paper,' he said. 'This way you can actually see what it can become,' said Duffner.
Duffner dubbed the effort the Heat4Homeless project, and he does much of the work in his grandfather's workshop in Chicago's Mt. Greenwood neighborhood. Retired accountant Bill Duffner, his grandfather, takes time out of his furniture restoring hobby to help out.
'This is just my mancave,' said Bill Duffner of the workshop space. 'I come here to make things.'
The brick-making process, which the younger Duffner learned from online videos, starts with recycled newspapers, which are shredded and then watered down in a big barrel. Billy then places them in a mold with three PVC tubes in each and then the paper slurry is pressed down with a bottle jack. The PVC pipes help hold the bricks together, aids in airflow and saves paper, he said.
'When on fire, the air goes through the holes so they burn better,' Billy said.
The bricks are then placed on racks, built by Billy's grandfather, and left to dry for four or five days. The elder Duffner is also making an oven for quicker drying.
When finished, Billy includes firestarters with each pack of bricks, as well as a detailed description of how to start the fire logs. Each fire log burns for about 45 minutes and fire starters burn for 15-20 minutes.
He said he gained experience helping his dad, a former carpenter, who is now an engineer, when he would build decks for people. He also said he likes taking an idea and building it up into a real business.
'We can really push them out now,' said Billy. 'Every week distributors bring them out to people who need them.'
Those distributors are nonprofit organizations such as Oak Lawn-based Almost Home Chicago, and he is looking for more who can use the bricks. One distributor who took bricks found them so helpful to homeless people that he came back and asked for 10 more, Billy said.
It's become a family affair, too, with grandmother Mikki Carping getting the word out to the media and grandmother Marianne Duffner reaching out to homeless agencies. Friends and neighbors are helping supply the recycled paper.
Bill Duffner, said helping others has direct benefits for his grandson as well.
'I think it's great business experience,' he said. 'And I think it's good he's thinking about people other than himself.'
Billy feels such passion for the project that he's gathering paperwork to apply for non-profit status.
He's also working on making sure his Heat4Homeless organization stays alive, possibly in high school service groups or non-profits with space for the brick-making equipment.
'I think the idea of this nonprofit is here to stay,' Billy said. 'This summer I'm going to work really hard on this to build up a stockpile.'