Does anyone have any bright ideas as to what one can do with fairly serious quantities of sawdust/wood chippings. We've got bags of it accumulated in our workshop - we've been waiting for a farmer who said he wanted it for animal bedding, but I don't think he's ever going to turn up. I can't bear to burn it, especially after reading David Olivier's stuff about particulate pollution (see pros and cons of wood burning thread in Building Services Forum).
I know there are workshop dust extraction systems on the market that turn the stuff straight into compacted bricks ready to go into a heating system, but we don't have that kind of money.
Am I right in thinking that sawdust is no good for composting, or is that only applicable to small compost heaps? Can industrial scale composting handle it?
Gareth D
posted on 06-05-06
I'm pretty sure you're right about the composting - it's at best benign and takes a very long time to rot.
The obvious answer is still animal bedding. I don't know if horse owners are fussy about any chemicals in the the sawdust/shavings, but if I were you I'd go through the phone book and ring some livery stables nearby. They'll almost certainly be paying for the stuff at the moment.
Biff
posted on 06-05-06
I produce a bag or two of oak sawdust/chippings/shavings a week. I'm using some as insulation between a brick skin and a wattle and dawb internal wall, but sometimes I burn it in my strawburning boiler and sometimes I mix it on the compost heap and sometimes I use it as a weed suppressing mulch. I like to think the tannins slow the weeds down but they are trying to convince me otherwise. Somebody told me I should sell it to someone who wanted to use it in a smoke house but I haven't actually managed to establish this lucrative trade. Any offers?
arnold w
posted on 13-05-06
sawdust and gardening do not mix, wood when rotting down removes the nitrogen from the soil ,which explains why Biff's weeds don't grow.
which explains why horse muck in shavings take a long time to rot down
Biff
posted on 13-05-06
Sadly, Arnold, you misunderstood me. My weeds grow all too well.
There is a nitrogen loss involved in adding any nitrogen poor mulch to the soil as the bacteria remove N from the soil as the grow and multiply. But it's a temporary effect as the N is returned when the bugs die. Sawdust does take a long time to rot, especially from a durable wood such as oak, but a 2 inch thick mulch does act as a weed suppressor and moisture retainer before completely disappearing within 12 months. How much of it completely rots in that time and how much has been dragged down by worms I'm not sure but it goes. I presume the decay products increase the organic content of the soil, with the resulting clay-humus micelles helping to make nutrients available to plants and retaining moisture.
Julian
posted on 18-05-06
I have a sawdust burning stove in my workshop, made by "Fulgora" Battersea London. Free heating! and its E frendly. Runs for about 6 hours on one filling and keeps the workshop tidy.
Julian.
