With this huge shop remodel project, I'm left with stacks of scraps of wood all over the place - small cutoffs of plywood, stacks of melamine from failed cabinets that were torn down (they were literally dripping off the wall), OSB from the siding, T-111 from the siding as well, chunks of 2x4, 2x6. Some with paint, some without, some with nails, some stained.

I'm left with easily a large truckload of wood scraps. The local transfer station has a "recycling" center, but they charge by the pound (not ton) plus $10, and everything has to be non-painted, non-stained, no plastic or melamine, no OSB, no manufactured wood at all. (So, I guess what they'd like is stacks of clear 8/4 cherry they can charge me to take.) Most of the scraps are really useless - no building anything out of them. Lots have sat in our rain, or are so warped (melamine) that I can't use them even to make bins or something.

I have acreage, room to build a firepit, and a few burn piles, but it's not burning season. Should I stack everything somewhere in a materials pile and deal with it next year? Burn any/some/all of it? Run it through the chipper and pretend to mulch it? I don't want to do anything illegal/suspect/bad for the environment, and I hate to see it all go to the landfill. I have a woodstove we plan to install in a studio next year...again, I don't want to burn whatever contains formaldehyde, glues, plastics, resins...whatever.

Should I pay the money to "dump" as garbage? It's only about $30 to dump it all as general garbage, but...I hate to think of this crap going in the ground, and I've certainly been rethinking the materials I buy from now on.

So, any suggestions?