Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-07-21
THIRTY MILLION
CORDS OF WOOD ARE
WASTED EVERY YEAR

Washington, July 14.-There are more
than $4,000 sawmills in the United
States, and their output of waste in the
form of sawdust. shavings, slabs, and
other wood refuse is estimated as SO
million cords per year. This is equal
to over 1-2 billion cubic feet of waste
which is the capacity Of a bin one-half
mile high with base covering a forty
acre lot. Or, considering each cord to
contain eighty cubic feet Of solid wood
with all the cracks and air spaces TAX
en- 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-
naming 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. Shayings and hog
cuttings. as we'll 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 a fire-pit having an
open fire which sometimes has a pro-
tecting wall on the side towards the
mill. or in a burner enclosed on all
sides and having a spark
screen at the top and fire crate near
the bottom. In both cases some kind
Of conveyor is necessary to bear the
waste from the mill to the fire. This is
usually sort Of trough with a metal
bottom along which a slowly moving
chain or cable, equipped with cleats or
buckets, carries the waste to the fire.
A closed burner and conveyor costs
about 200 for mill Of hundred
thousand feet daily capacity. Forty
per cent Of the larger mills. cutting
more than 5000 board feet daily, are
equipped with closed burners. Forty
FIVE per cent have fre-pits. The re-
mainder have neither and dispose of
their waste in some other way.
1t is estimated that for mill Of one
hundred thousand feet capacity the
cost of conveying the waste from the
machine where 1t is made and destroy
ing it in closed burner is AZ cents
per cord or s1o.o5 per day. Burners
in a. few cases ashes are sold for fer
tilizer, and in a number Of others the
burner furnishes hot feed water for the
boilers.
Both burners and fire-pits add to the
insurance rates on lumber, and in the
case OF the pit on the mill itself. In
order to reduce the fire hazard to zero,
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 pits, especially the open
ones, which must be kept three hun
dred feet away from the mill and five
hundred feet away from any lumber
piles When nearer than these dis
distances from the mill and yard re-
spectively, the insurance rates mount
up rapidly with closer proximity until
they become practically prohibitive
when the fire-pit is nearer than one
hundred feet.
No we'll managed mill would produce
waste II it could be avoided. This
however. is not possible. so the next
best thing is to seek out some method
Of utilization Of the waste so it will pay
for its disposition. The Forest Service
is working on this problem, but has not
yet found satisfactory solution.