Hi,
Hopefully somebody may be able to help
We produce about 15 very good size bin bags full of shavings and sawdust a week and at the moment we are struggling to find a way of disposal. Also we produce about the same quantity of offcuts. Both are produced from untreated wood and are a mixture of hard and softwoods.
Due to company policies etc, we cannot bury, burn it etc. Also the quantity is to much for composting etc.
Any ideas for disposal???
Worcestershire area
Local pet shops for disposal of your sawdust shavings.
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
My sawdust goes in the green bin, but I have maybe a bin bag a week. The obvious thing is to use it as heating fuel in your place of work. You can get burners that you can use in smokeless zones with this wood. Next best options are to sell it to a pellet producer, or people with open fires.
If you lived neer me, I would do a deal with you. My project house will be exclusivly heated by wood.
Rick
Burn it, in a properly designed woodstove that's used for site heating. Change the unreasonable blanket policy to suit - "burning" doesn't have to mean a dirty open bonfire or a beehive stove.
There are also sawdust dealers, who you can find through yellow pages.
15 bags / week is on the small side though, so you might have to store a few week's worth before they'll collect (space and fire hazard). This might involve geting a pelleting press, but they're expensive.A lot depends on the type of wood you have. If there's man-made board waste in there then it gets expensive and burning might well be ruled out. If there's hand shavings, then it doesn't pelletise well.
You might even find that single centralised dust extraction is a bad idea, just because it combines multiple waste streams that you then find difficult to dispose of. A stream of "clean shavings" from a thicknesser can be easier to get rid of than mixed dust or floor sweepings.
Probably true, but this is extremely unhealthy for the critters and a reputable pet shop won't touch them. Pet bedding should have a low dust content (shavings not sawdust), should avoid formaldehyde (no man-made boards) and should avoid many high-resin softwoods too.
I supply a local rat-keeper with hand-planed lime shavings of the very finest quality, but that's not really an economic prospect. They're so fluffy though I'm tempted to nest in them myself 8-)
That sounds the sort of thing Harrods pet department would stock.
Owain
Schools (primary as well as secondary) should be interested in offcuts. Get them to collect them on a regular basis. The local authority/allotment groups/commercial growers may be interested in compost material.
Damn, if you were nearer I'd have the lot. With oil at > 30p litre it's worth having.
My thoughts as well, though I wouldn't really have wanted the dust/shavings only the offcuts.
Definitely not, unless the wood species are separated and known.
Some are toxic to small animals.
If the sawdust is relatively free from petrocemicals, it makes an excellent weed suppreessing mulch.
Sell it as such.
Its also a decent compost additive.
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