Charcoal Vs Charcoal Powder

Hello Family,

For decades, middle income earners in urban and rural African households, have been using charcoal for cooking .For any user, it is “cleaner and easier to use than firewood, cheaper and more readily available than gas or electricity” despite rising income levels.imagesource

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In fact, according to the World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa’s “household electrification rate averaged 42% in 2016. There is wide variation in electricity access across countries, with some fragile countries having rates less than 10%.” Charcoal, by contrast, is widespread. Dalberg estimates that “most people in Nairobi live within a 50–200-metre walk from a charcoal vendor”.imagesource

Despite charcoal being user friendly, most households have sidelined the use of Charcoal powder.As long as the charcoal is used up, the bag full of charcoal powder is dumped on a heap of rubbish.

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Yes, most households have learnt that Charcoal dust is helpful in making charcoal briquettes. It may have taken them eternity to adopt this however it is picking up well as a source of income especially to those in the urban setting.

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Personally, i use briquettes a lot at home and they are good for cooking. Other uses of charcoal and charcoal dust include, teeth whitening, sorting stomach upsets among others.
When it comes to our toilets , bathrooms vs the foul smell that could stem from it , especially those with self contained houses. One may wander, what to do in case they have run out of the air fresheners, the disinfectant toilet balls that make our lives easier. Worry not, charcoal dust has got you covered.

-Get a bag,
-Make holes out of it using a knife,
-Put your charcoal dust inside it
-Place it at the corner of your toilet or hang it somewhere in the bathroom/toilet.

I have tried this for a week like you can see in the above images and the smell has been mitigated. If you are earnestly waiting for the smell of a sweet perfume, like the disinfectant toilet balls give, you may not have it. The charcoal dust simply gives you a moderately comfort environment in the event that you cannot afford the sophisticated ones.

Let us use charcoal powder because it is cheap, user friendly, affordable and easy to find especially when we cannot afford the disinfectants.

Thank you