What do you do with your sawdust?

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Hey all,

I live in a suburban area and we're only serviced once a week and allowed 1 normal sized garbage can of trash per week. I was curious what my fellow city-dwelling woodworking friends do with their hobby generated wood waste? I was thinking of buying another large trash can just to empty my DC barrel so I don't have the fire hazard sitting in my garage over night. What solutions have you all found?

FYI, I'm in the Detroit Area.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Philip, I'm in Toronto.

Previously I gave mine to the in-laws who used it for bedding for their chickens, unfortunately they sold the farm.

Now I either compost it, or use it as mulch (yes I have to add more nitrogen to the soil).

Regards, Rod.

[Bryan Lisowski]

I have given scraps to a neighbor for his fire pit, but generally I put everything in the trash, our guys take everything, I had 2 trash cans of wood scraps and sawdust and they took it all.

[Joe Wood]

I put an ad on craigslist, people snap it up quickly for animal bedding, and compost!

[Jamie Buxton]

The trash collection service at my home includes a 100-gallon bin for yard trimmings. They accept sawdust and small pieces of lumber in that bin. So I bag the stuff at the shop and carry it home.

[Ben Rivel]

Green waste bin.

[Bruce Page]

Mine's always a mixture of hardwoods, softwoods, & mdf from work on my cnc. It goes to the landfill.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Got a lady who swings by and picks it up for her stable.

[Zachary Hoyt]

Sawdust from the sawmill goes on one of three piles, once each pile has sat outside for a year it goes to the garden for mulch, after a year outside it is no longer a nitrogen drain. Planer shavings go in barrels and get used for worm compost bedding or chicken bedding or nest boxes. Jointer shavings and shop sanding and saw dust usually have some walnut in them and are bad for plants and animals, they go in the boiler and are burned for heat/hot water. I also have a 5 gallon bucket for scraps that are too small to be useful, that also gets dumped in the boiler. Small amounts of shop vac dust from vacuuming the workshop and running small sanders end up going to the transfer station, via the trash barrel.
Zach

[michael dilday]

Mine either goes in the garden or the trash can.

[Jeff Body]

Make your own fire bricks with a press.

https://smile.amazon.com/Cogex-81556-81556-Briquette-Press/dp/B004USLGY2/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sawdust+press&qid=1581734178&sr=8-1

[Ben Rivel]

Make your own fire bricks with a press.

https://smile.amazon.com/Cogex-81556-81556-Briquette-Press/dp/B004USLGY2/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sawdust+press&qid=1581734178&sr=8-1
Thats pretty cool, I like that idea. Does the dust have to be mixed with something to make it stick together?

[Curt Harms]

We have a wildlife rehab center a few miles away. They welcome the mostly planer/jointer chips. I keep non-animal friendly chips (very few) separate, those go out in the normal trash

[Bob Riefer]

Piggy backing on Curt's comment above: For those gifting to others to use for animals and other uses, it's good to be transparent with them as to what type of dust is included in the mix each time. Some will not want fine dust (desiring chips only), some will not want certain types of woods (e.g. black walnut) etc.

In fact, if folks here know a list of commonly problematic woods, that would be handy to know..

- black walnut
- maybe pressure treated lumber?
- if you work with composite, that's probably out
- what else?

[glenn bradley]

In the green barrel or in the yard depending on what I've been cutting.

[Mark Daily]

Some ideas from a similar thread:

https://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?256394-Uses-for-wood-shavings-and-sawdust&styleid=4

[Charles Lent]

If you live in a busy neighborhood you might consider packing and sealing it in Amazon boxes and then leave them on your front porch. A friend claimed that this works quite well where she lives.

You might also dump it in your pickup bed and then drive down the interstate 20 miles or so.

I put my safer wood saw dust in my compost pile and then add it as needed to my garden areas. The unsafe or mixed sawdust gets bagged and put in the trash.

Charley

[Jim Dwight]

I have a home made box below the cyclone of my DC that holds about 70 gallons. When it gets full, I wheel it to my truck, drive 5 miles to the collection center, and dump it in the bin where they take yard and construction waste. I have my house hold waste hauled off but now that I am retired and have a truck, I will probably cancel it and just take everything to the collection center. I put sawdust in their bin a time or two but got nasty notes from the guys on the truck. If I had to haul it to the actual dump I would be looking for another idea. It is probably 30 miles away. But 5 miles is not a big deal to me.

[Paul F Mills]

I spread it around the yard in hopes of killing weeds/vines.

[Mike Heidrick]

I burn it or use it to start other fires

[jeff norris 2011]

I send it off to compost. The only issues is it has be in certain bag rather than just a bin.

[Mike Kees]

I run bags in my drum (55 gallon) and throw them in a dumpster on the way home.

[Mike Stelts]

I use one drum for the jointer and planer; this is great animal bedding. The other drum takes everything else and goes in the garbage can. It's a big can and we never fill it with house waste.

[Jeff Monson]

If you live in a busy neighborhood you might consider packing and sealing it in Amazon boxes and then leave them on your front porch. A friend claimed that this works quite well where she lives.



Charley

Haha, I just read this, that is funny stuff. Would be great to have a camera in the box to see how happy the thief really is when they open the box.

[Stan Calow]

Spread in the yard, but I have also used it to solidify paint in cans I want to get rid of, and to soak up spills in the garage or basement.

[Charles Lent]

Jeff,

Do a Youtube search for "Glitter Bomb" for some very creative ways to foil package thieves and make videos of them in the act. This guy made a very involved glitter bomb with a camera inside to record the "opening". He also installed a tracking device, so he could retrieve his bomb after the thief discarded it, and use it again.

Charley

[Ben Rivel]

Jeff,

Do a Youtube search for "Glitter Bomb" for some very creative ways to foil package thieves and make videos of them in the act. This guy made a very involved glitter bomb with a camera inside to record the "opening". He also installed a tracking device, so he could retrieve his bomb after the thief discarded it, and use it again.

Charley
Yea that went so viral it was annoying. As I understand it he later admitted those "thefts" were all staged and he knew the people. Dont anything you see on Facebook. lol

[Jim Becker]

I know that the original question was posed more toward folks who don't live in rural areas, but I can't resist posting my solution since I had to empty the bin today in the middle of milling material for a client project. There's a whole lot of "board feet" of sawdust and shavings there! I suspect that in a few years that if Professor Dr. SWMBO and I "downsize" and end up either closer to town or on a much smaller property, actual disposal will have to start factoring in.

426358

[Charles Taylor]

To reiterate something mentioned already, if your waste includes walnut dust or chips, it isn't suitable for mulch or for horse bedding. My local waste authority doesn't want bagged sawdust in the garbage, so if I don't want to use it as mulch, the landfill is one of few options I'm aware of that won't run afoul of the rules where I live.

[Jim Andrew]

I use mostly walnut lumber, and my wife saves boxes for me to fill with sawdust. Keep the boxes filled in the furnace shed, and every morning when I start the fire in the furnace, put a box of sawdust, then some dried wood scraps on top, and 2 pages of newspaper to start the fire. Pile firewood on top and I have a fire going. Excess sawdust goes on my brush pile to burn. I have a few acres and not hard to find a brush pile. The creek runs through the middle of my place, always more dead trees and brush to clean up than I can keep up with.

[Justin Rapp]

I had a guy that used to want hardwood only material from the dust collector. He used it for fertilizer or something. He hasn't been in touch so it's been going in the garbage as I have no where to really spread it on my property. I would really like to dump it in the woods so it doesn't go to a landfill, but in my area of Jersey I don't think getting caught for 'dumping' is a good idea.

[Roger Feeley]

Mine often has pvc or treated lumber dust so it can’t be used on plants or as bedding. A kid down the street works on cars. He takes a bag from Tim to time to soak up oils. The rest goes to the landfill.

[Rob Luter]

I either compost it or burn it. Lately I dump my dust collector in a wooded side lot and distribute the shavings with a leaf blower. It returns to the soil in a month or so.

[Rob Luter]

I had a guy that used to want hardwood only material from the dust collector. He used it for fertilizer or something. He hasn't been in touch so it's been going in the garbage as I have no where to really spread it on my property. I would really like to dump it in the woods so it doesn't go to a landfill, but in my area of Jersey I don't think getting caught for 'dumping' is a good idea.

Sawdust isn’t dumping any more than falling leaves are dumping. Make a pile. Pour a coffee can of high nitrogen pelletized fertilizer on it. Douse well with water. It will be dirt in 6 weeks. Makes great flower bed mulch.

[Justin Rapp]

I either compost it or burn it. Lately I dump my dust collector in a wooded side lot and distribute the shavings with a leaf blower. It returns to the soil in a month or so.

I actually tried to burn it last night (hardwood chips and dust from hickory and maple) and it didn't burn well or even fast. It almost smothered out the ambers from the fire we had going.

[Jack Frederick]

Pellet manufs push the raw material through their dies at high pressure. The friction through the die creates heat which in turn brings out the lignites in the wood. Those lignites are the glue which holds the pellets together...for a while. Not sure how a hand press would do as I've never tried this.

[Rob Luter]

I actually tried to burn it last night (hardwood chips and dust from hickory and maple) and it didn't burn well or even fast. It almost smothered out the ambers from the fire we had going.

Sometimes it's tough to get going. The surface will ignite and it will do a slow burn. To be fair, 95% of mine is planer shavings either from a lunchbox or my hand planes so it burns OK. Regular sawdust can be tough. I usually mix it in with sticks and leaves so it can get some air.

[Bud Millis]

Mine goes into the compositors or into the garden.

[Flamone LaChaud]

I was watching Ishanti Furniture on youtube . . .and in one of the videos you see him with his sawdust stove. Just an oversized pipe that he puts a second pipe in the middle of, and then loads it up with sawdust and shavings, packs it tight to where it's like a brick, pulls the second pipe out so there's an air tube, lights it and it heats the shop. Probably not practical in the city . . . but nifty nonetheless.

[Tom Bender]

We have yard waste recycling so most goes there. I'm careful to give them no sheet goods or pressure treated or trash. That all goes in the trash. Wood big enough to burn goes to a friend with a fireplace.

[Tony Latham]

Make your own fire bricks with a press.

https://smile.amazon.com/Cogex-81556-81556-Briquette-Press/dp/B004USLGY2/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sawdust+press&qid=1581734178&sr=8-1

I liked this in the description:

"...can be used to inexpensively compress paper that can then be used to start a chimney fire." Most folks here call the fire department when that happens. ; ) I got a chuckle out of that.

We have a wood stove in the house and thus I save sawdust for fire starter (mixed with diesel fuel).


Tony

[Michael Drew]

One of the local girl scout packs likes to make fire starters out of sawdust and wax. They like dryer lint too. I usually give them a couple trash bags full of sawdust / wood chips each year. I live in a small town, so I would imagine, larger cities may more options for this type of 'donation'. The 'boy scouts' is obviously not an option anymore.....