There's a new firelog out at Home Depot that is "eco-positioned" and uses wax-covered cardboard.  It claims to have significantly less soot and creosol than wood (<80% I think) and to be made from waste stream cardboard.  It lights quickly and keeps burning for about 1-2 hours. Anyway something like that could be used as a firestarter brick that gets put at the bottom of a charcoal pile. (Kind of like the girlscout trick of pouring wax and dryer lint in old egg cartons as firestarters when camping.) Certainly much better, faster, easier than newspaper.... I never liked the whole newspaper thing as "kindling".  The pieces always floated around and stuck to the food.