Upon whom can I offload my sawdust?

[Joe Craven]

I have 5 dust collection bags that are all full of various hardwood dust, and the 6th one is halfway there. I realize that this is really thick plastic, but $5/bag at the local Woodcraft just eats at me for some reason.

I really want to reuse these bags (while satisfying some luck benefactor) but I don't think - especially given the exotic hardwood - that there'd be any takers. As I understand it, mechanics no longer use sawdust for oil spills. I'm sure it's too toxic for a hamster cage or horse stall. The only thing I can think of is a honky tonk.

Can anyone point me in a direction where I might find someone interested in sawdust? If for no other reason, to put it to good use instead of in the landfill.

Thanks,
Joe

[Wade Lippman]

What are these $5 bags!?

[Joe Craven]

I'm pretty sure it was ~25 for the 5-pack of the Jet bags at the local Woodcraft. The next set - if I have to go that far - will be from Amazon. Although, those are still $4 bags...

[Max Neu]

I use to give mine to some people down the road from me for their horse stalls.But I got tired of trying to keep certain woods out of the mix (like walnut),so now I just burn it all,bags included.

[Matt Day]

What kind of DC do you have? If a normal single state 1.5-2 hp, add a Thien separator and you'll never use another thick bag again and you'll reduce the fines that make it to the filter. I dump my barrel in a yard duty garbage bag.

[Martin Wasner]

Does you city have a composing site?

[John Schweikert]

I just put it in my compost in the back corner of our yard where pumpkins, grass clippings and the like regularly goes. It came from the earth, just return it that way.

[Bob Grier]

I toss dust in the yard waste cans for curb pickup. Makes nice dust cloud when they dump it but I haven't been told to quit doing it. I collect chips in separator garbage can between machine and dust collector. Chips go in garden or my brother gives them to his chickens to play with. Much easier to dump separator can than the bag.

[Don Sundberg]

Lately mine have been mulching my blackberries and blueberries.

Don

[Peter Quinn]

We make about 15-25 bags each week. We got some cheap u-line trash liners, dump the heavy collector bags into these, a farmer picks them up for animals bedding. We don't send him dust from the wide belt, or the plywood dust that comes off the panel saw. We have a number of small collectors rather than a large centralized unit, so it's easier. But if your dust is in fact toxic to living things......it's either compost or dumpster.

[Michael Stein]

I dump mine from the thick collector bag, into a black contractor bag, and take it to the county dump. Luckily, the county dump is a few minutes away from the house.

[Al Launier]

I use Heavy Duty Drum Liners that I pick up at Home Deport (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ultrasac-...+hd+trash+bags). Although not as thick as the 5 mil bags they do work for disposal. When the thick bag on the DC gets to about 2/3-3/4 full I place the drum liner over the DC bag, turn both over gently to empty the sawdust, let the dust settle before removing the DC bag, tie off the drum liner & dispose of it at the landfill. This works well & only costs about $0.40/bag.

[Wade Lippman]

I use Heavy Duty Drum Liners that I pick up at Home Deport (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ultrasac-...+hd+trash+bags). Although not as thick as the 5 mil bags they do work for disposal. When the thick bag on the DC gets to about 2/3-3/4 full I place the drum liner over the DC bag, turn both over gently to empty the sawdust, let the dust settle before removing the DC bag, tie off the drum liner & dispose of it at the landfill. This works well & only costs about $0.40/bag.

That process is probably pretty messy. Can't you put the cheap bag inside the heavy bag originally, and then just remove when full? I seem to recall doing that.

[Justin Ludwig]

I'm sure there are plenty of organic farmers and growers that would take it off your hands.

[Robert Parent]

I just dump mine in the yard and spread it around using a rake. In a couple days you hardly can tell where it was dumped.

Robert