Mmm.
I am as far from Green as it is possible to get BUT my experience is that organic material stays organic and doesnt release [all its] carbon, ending up as peat/lignite/coal eventually
It isn't, but the key fact is that 'everyone' used to have coal fires, few people burn wood.
It also reduces my consumption of irreplaceable fossil fuels.
Not irreplaceable, just takes a long time to replace
As I understand it wood creation/destruction is essentially neutral in the CO2 stakes. If you burn it then the CO2 is released quickly, if you leave it to rot then the CO2 is released slowly. The resulting CO2 is then (possibly/probably) re-absorbed by growing trees and other vegetation.
I wonder how much (in global CO2 in the atmosphere terms) carbon is held in growing vegetation.
<snip>
Quite right too! ;-)
Only flown once (to Nice) for work, wouldn't do it again out of principal (pollution).
I have never commuted any distance by vehicle (my choice) and when I have needed to (commute) I've generally gone by train.
We do our 'weekly shop' (and most other shopping) on foot.
Not perfect and not tree huggers, just do what we can.
Cheers, T i m
Ah, so not necessarily 'clean prepared timber' then, that could be easily put to better use (than being left to rot or burning)?
Quite, and often doing more 'good' along the way, like providing insect habitat.
And two wrongs don't make a right.
Make that three wrongs then. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Quite, but if you keep it as wood (in furniture / buildings / structures etc) then the CO2 is not released at all.
See above.
I think the answer is 'lots', with much of it held in the sea ... well, till it becomes to acid that is ...
Cheers, T i m
I am impressed if I understand you correctly that you have only flown once in your life.
Jonathan
Indeed - I will routinely get shot (in the bonfire) of a couple of dustbin loads of waste timber on the fire with any decent sized wood working project.
Is this fire something that also heats your house OOI?
I've never tried but do the council recycling centres take sawdust and small offcuts in their 'wood' skips?
The last time I was at ours they had one skip for chipboard (that was carefully packed with the flat panels by an operative, making it one solid chipboard block), another for clean timber (and possibly MDF). I don't think they took tree wood (logs etc) or if they did it went in with the general (not green) waste.
I know shredded paper must be in a paper sack, probably to stop it blowing about in transit so the same might apply to sawdust if they put it in with the clean wood.
Someone I know turns things like chess pieces and makes wooden children's toys and is really grateful for what most people would consider 'useless offcuts'.
People often use sawdust as horse bedding or it can be used for soaking up spilled oil.
Then you get places like this:
Well, 'there and back' <g> but it was basically just the once (in my
63 years so far), yes ... and I have no intention of flying again, a large reason being the pollution they cause to everyone (particularly by those just 'enjoying themselves', rather than being at work etc).Also been up in a light aircraft once but whilst I felt happier because it could at least glide reasonably well, I think by the end of the (short) trip I was holding the sick bag, just in case. ;-(
The last holiday we had (probably 15+ years ago) was the Mrs and I camping with the tandem (and trailer). ;-)
But then neither of us want to be burnt in the sun or want all the aggravation of the actual flying / holidaying abroad thing, especially when there are plenty of things to do / see in the UK and where our holiday often starts the instant we set off? ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Not usually - it heats the garden.
Don't know. Not sure the 12 mile round trip just to enjoy a car full of sawdust is worth it.
Yup there are offcuts and offcuts. The bulk (by volume anyway) of the waste I produce is sawdust and planer shavings. Very little value to that. Then there are offcuts that are too small to keep for the typical type of project I do. Having said that, the species of wood will influence how much value it has to keep. So relatively small bits of walnut for example are far more useful that offcuts of MDF or pine.
A mate of mine like to turn pens and other small things - so some of the hardwood offcuts can go to him. (I would probably throw out less if I had more materials storage space)
Use for bedding is ok if you are confident it is clean enough. When it combines stuff collected from the planers, with the table and bandsaws, plus stuff swept off the floor - the quality can be a bit variable.
There is one about 15 miles away by the looks of it. Might be worth look in to see if they have any decent hardwoods. (my nearest supplier of "new" hardwood is more like 25 miles away).
And my garden therefore then?
I'll find out the next time I'm at ours.
I wouldn't typically just go to the tip for such a thing, I'd do that when going that way next.
And if you put the sawdust in a container, it wouldn't go everywhere. ;-)
<snip>
Other than horse bedding, oil soak-up, making re-constituted wood and firelighters etc. ;-)
Of course ... till you want to make that small thing ...
Of course, especially to you. Your MDF offcuts may well be gold to a model maker / railway club?
Ok [1].
I said bedding not fodder (but I get your point if it could also contain any non-wood material / swarf etc).
If you do, could you let us know how you got on please (OOI)?
Cheers, T i m
[1] As with any responsible recycling, we often have to put ourselves out to do it (where 'putting yourself out' = 'being socially responsible' etc). So, that often means using a store-and-forward system and that can often be moderated to suit your space / workflow.Like. We have some friends who run a small mail order business from their home (as part of their family business with a shop etc). They do so as a sort of hobby, supporting a small group of customers and so look to cost-cut wherever possible. To that end they are very grateful for padded postal bags and small boxes, taking any size bag in any condition as they will often cut a large bag down to make several smaller ones etc. So, we 'collect up' what we get (and can get from others) and when they are in need for some or we get a reasonable quantity (that we have to store etc), we typically drop them off as we are going that way and they are very grateful (and we are often invited in for a coffee etc).
We don't have a lot of spare space ourselves and so storing these bags for any length of time isn't without some burden on us but it's worth it for all the reasons. ;-)
It would account for his nartow bigoted 'Little Europeaner' worldview for sure
I grow coppicing trees for firewood. I gets to four inches diameter in five years.
That doesn't answer the point at all. And since wood is a renewable resource shouldn't we be using more of it, not less?
It isn't wastage. It makes heat, which we need. By your logic burning wood at Drax so people can use electric fires is wastage.
Pretty well. That's the sort of level they aim for in horticulture with the CO2 generators.
Since CO2 has only gone up 130ppm since the start of the Industrial Revolution and has now reached about 400ppm I don't think it's likely to reach 1,000 ppm.
Bill
There's no point in recycling if it isn't immediately cost effective. If it's costing money to do it then it's just a way of virtue signalling that makes us all poorer.
That makes sense. It saves money. Similarly we save all newspaper for a bloke who has a lot of rabbits. It saves him buying an alternative. I save all packaging material (I have many sheds) and it does get used again. We circulate egg boxes, in that family members who want free eggs have to provide an empty box. I keep all waste metal, even tiny offcuts, and give the boxful to a bloke who calls round when I put a sign outside saying scrap. Yes surprisingly he does have a waste carrier's licence and perhaps even more surprisingly he is an archaeologist. A proper one.
Bill
Only a very small proportion of atmospheric CO2 is caused by man. Most comes from volcanism, erosion, etc.
Bill
It all sounds perfectly pointless to me. Just putting yourself out for the sake of it.
Bill
It was a lot more than that in the past.
With no industrialization.
Most aerial masts are aluminium. The steel ones are cheaper but have a dreadful reputation for rotting away (except for some specialist products). Most of them don't have any protection; just a silver finish that comes off very quickly. They have remarkably thin tube walls (1mm at best) and they don't come with end caps so they rust from the inside as well as the outside. In the days when the cowboys were using cheap steel masts it was common to find one rusted through just above the top of the chimney pot, with the U bolts and mast clamp still in such good condition that they could be re-used. During the late 70s and early 80s I had a full time job replacing steel masts, because I was working for DER who had previously had their own riggers who had used them. Mostly I was charging DER because the aerial was still under warranty.
Bill
Of course it does?
Yes, exactly, use ... not waste / burn it.
Of course it is, if it can be used?
You plant a tree, grow a tree, fell a tree, plank up a tree, season the planks, finish the planks, distribute the planks and use the planks. The offcuts can often still be *used*.
Fine, if you are using that resource the most efficient way. Heating your garden isn't, nor is heating your house in an open 'log fire'. A more sophisticated log burning fire might be more efficient but how efficiently does it limit / reduce / manage the pollution?
If you are burning fallen timber or other *unusable* wood waste then no. However, Drax can't live on that and so they have to constantly fell entire and often old woodland in other countries to chip, transport and burn over here. Multiple whammy. The loss of carbon capture (trees), pollution and energy used in transportation, carbon and pollution released in it's burning.
Just as well when we can't breathe here.
Have you seen the graphs? Do they look that linear to you? Do you think there could be trigger points that could cause some form of runaway?
Mankind has been on this planet for a fair time now but has only in the last couple of hundred years consumed most of the earths natural resources (generating the pollution it has in the same time).
We are cr*pping in our own food and f*rting in our own air on industrial levels whilst reducing the earths means to balance it.
It will balance it again of course, after it wipes out the infestation that is trying to kill it.
Cheers, T i m
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.