Sawdust: What Do You Do With It?

[Mark Patoka]

In the summer I mix it with grass clippings in my Compost Tumbler and in the winter most of it gets dumped out in the woods so nature can compost it.

[Ryan Hellmer]

I used to trash it, but now, I have a big yard with a fenced compost pile. Problem is, I've undertaken 2 big projects in the last year (hardwood floor and kitchen cabinets) and generated about 20 yards of planer/shaper shavings. Composting is going REALLY slow even with nitrogen (in the form of grass clippings) added. At my dads place we just toss it in the woods but I'm stuck with a BIG pile for the foreseeable future. Never had much luck burning it, but I have plenty of fuel for the house/shop from the cut-offs anyways.

Ryan

[Dave Houseal]

We have chickens and horses, so it becomes bedding before going to the compost pile, and then into the garden flower beds, planters, etc.

I have to be careful to make sure PT or walnut doesn't go into the bedding, but that is usually small quantities that just go into the regular trash pickup.

[Chris Tsutsui]

In California if I were to dump it around my small yard, it would eventually end up in the storm drain and out in the ocean. Then our seafood would start tasting like sawdust. jk

I either put my sawdust in the "green waste" recycling trash bin, or the "Refuse" trash bin.

I wonder if other states have a mandatory 3 types of trash bins?

[Abi Parris]

Give it to a friend who uses it in her cat's litter box.

[Doug Carpenter]

I put it in the garbage.

There is no reason why it can't go to the lanfill.

I think it is rediculus that landfills don't take yard waste. Wood and grass and leaves would be the best thing for a landfill. What are they afraid of polluting their water bottle collection?

Some years ago the gov decided they needed to cut back in the intake at land fills so they picked the easiest thing to put in one catagory and said "no more yard waste".

totally silly.

[Dave Anderson NH]

With a lot that is 2 heavily wooded acres mine just gets dumped out into the woods. I have a habit while working on a project of filling a small prescription bottle with some sawdust from each species of wood for use as a mixer with hide glue when I need to hide screwups or repair mistakes. It gets discarded and the bottles reused after the project is completed.

[Paul McGaha]

Mine goes out with the regular trash.

[Rusty Eads]

A local company will take it and they sell it to the power company for biomass. I live in the middle of town with a very tiny yard so burning or composting is out of the question.

[Chip Lindley]

Fuel for my shop stove! Unless a large project produces more sawdust and shavings than I have 55gal. barrels to fill. Then it gets dumped in the woods behind my lagoon.

A shame there is no cheap, simple press to make just a few HoMade Presto logs from large amounts of wood shavings.

[jim hedgpeth]

A shame there is no cheap, simple press to make just a few HoMade Presto logs from large amounts of wood shavings.

I agree, it has crossed my mind many times. I have wondered if a hydraulic press could maybe be used to make them in small quantities if you had a mold. Not sure what "glue" would be best to use as a binding agent. Most glues emits highly toxic gasses when burned.

It would definitely be cool if someone figured out how to do it "on the cheap" with some common tool that has other uses around the shop like that.

Mine get bagged and go to the lake lot for fire starter.

Jim

[anthony wall]

i have been asked if i will sell mine apparently this guy presses it into blocks to make charcoal bricks.sounds like a great idea to me

[Matt Kestenbaum]

I rarely have a full bag that doesn't have some plywood dust or walnut or both...so I put the tied bag in the household dumpster that the town collects each week.

[Joe Mioux]

i throw it in the fence rows...

[Brian Tymchak]

I collect directly into the paper yard bags from the BORG and put it out to the curb with the rest of the yard waste.

Brian