The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1916-06-09
THIRTY SIX MILLION CORDS
OF WOOD WASTE ANNUALLY

Washington, June S.-There are tuore
States, ard their output of waste in
the form of sawdust, shavings, labs,
other wood refuse is estimated as IS
million cords per year. This, is equal
to over AZ, billion cubic feet OF waste
which is the capacity Of a bin e-hale
mile high with base covering a forty
acre lot. Or, considering each cord to
contain eighty cubic feet OF solid wood
ken out, these SO million cords would
make a block of wood more than
quarter of mile on each edge.
Perhaps one-half of this so-called
waste product is not strictly speaking
wasted, but serves useful purpose as
fuel under the boilers. Much Of the re
manning IS million cords not only serves
no useful purpose, but in most cases is
source of Inconvenience and danger
and costs the mill time and money.
Sawmill waste is disposed of in vari-
Gus ways. Some goes to the local fuel
market, some to pulp mills or to wood
distillation plants. Shavings and hog
cuttings, as well as other mill waste,
are sometimes used to fill low places in
the yard. However, the most common
method Of getting rid Of waste is by
burning either in fire pit having an
open fire which sometimes has a pro
tecting wall Oh the side towards the
mill, or in burner enclosed on all sides
and having a spark arresting screen n
the top and a fire CRATE near the bot
TOM In both cases some kind of con
veyor is necessary to bear the waste
from the mill to the fire. This is usu-
ally a sort of trough with a metal bot
tom along which a slowly moving chain
or cable, equipped with cleates or
luckets, carries the waste to the fire.
A closed burner and conveyor costs
about 1920 for mill of a hundred
thousand feet daily capacity. Forty
per cent Of the larger mills, cutting
more than So 900 board feet daily. are
equipped with closed burners. Forty
, five per cent have fire pits. The re
mainder have neither and dispose Of
their waste in some other way.
1t is estimated that for a mill Of one
! hundred thousand feet capacity the
cost Of conveying the waste from the
machine where it is made and destroy
ing it in closed burner is 40 cents per
cord or $1005 per day. Burners sell
dom bring in any revenue, although III
a few eases ashes are sold for fcrtili
zcr, and in number of others the bui =
tuer furnish IS hot feed water for the
boilers.
Both burners and fre-pits add to the
insurance rates on lumber, and i'll the
case of the pit on the mill Itself. in
order to reduce the fire hazard to zero,
in the case Of the burners, it is ncces-
sary to keep all lumber piles at least
one hundred and fifty feet away from
the burner. The matter is much worse
in the case Of pitts, especially the open
dred feet away from the mill and five
hundred feet away from any lumber
piles When nearer than these dis
tances from the mill yard respectively
the insurance rates mount up rapidly
with closer proximity until they be
come practically prohibitive when the
fire pit is nearer than one hundred
feet.
No well managed mill would pro
duce waste if it could be avoided. This
however, is not possible, so the next
best thing is to seek out some method
of utilization Gc .hn wcste so i VII!
nay for it's disposition. The Forest
Service is working OF this problem
but has not yet found satisfactory
solution.