# Sawdust Disposal



## traupmann (Oct 8, 2010)

What do you do with your sawdust? for that matter, those of you that don't have a stove, what do you do with the small scraps?

Our city picks it all up with the green leaves and grass, but that's only been recently. I'v curious if there is a 'good' use for all this.


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## rickf16 (Aug 5, 2008)

My shop backs up to the woods. I routed my dust collector so everything blows right out the back How's that for recycling.


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## cabs4less (Nov 2, 2010)

i burn it and fill my dogs houe wit it she loves its like a pillow for her


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## childress (Sep 14, 2008)

Use some in my compost bin and the rest gets recycled through the city's green waste


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## CoolDavion (Dec 6, 2007)

I saw someone had a post on CraigsList for bags of sawdust. Don't know if they had any luck.


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## Rev_John (Oct 3, 2007)

Farmers use it for animal beds, esp. in the winter. I use mine by adding it to leaves in the fall and let it compost. It works great.


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## SouthpawCA (Jul 19, 2009)

Like you our trash collection picks up the "green bin". They have started taking all kinds of kitchen compose in addition to the grass and shrubbery clippings. The guy actually stopped while I was working in my shop (aka garage) and told me they will also take scrap wood along with my bagged sawdust. So, I'm set.

However, if your city pickup doesn't do this try a local garden club. I use to provide them with sawdust which they then added to some compost bin. Apparently they liked it. The small scraps of wood I always put into the green bin. The thought behind that was if they cutoffs from a tree limb - they'll take my cutoffs.

The local school provides sawdust to be used by farmers for use in horse/cow stalls.


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## Manitario (Jul 4, 2010)

As others have said, it makes great compost; my wife has been getting me to save it for her garden, but I think my supply will eventually overwhelm her demand.


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## Gator (May 2, 2008)

I give mine to a mechanic friend.. he uses it for floor dry to clean up oil spills.. you have to be carefull using it for animal bedding as walnut sawdust does bad stuff to horses when they stand in it.

Gator


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## mosaicwes (Sep 14, 2010)

Walnut dust isn't just bad for horses. 
It's also toxic to most other plants. 
Not much grows underneath walnut trees.

Lost of different sawdusts are toxic in various ways.

Back when I had a garden I used to go behind the local Starbucks and pick up big bags of spent coffee grounds from their green bins. (It's normally picked up by the recycle truck but they don't mind at all if you do it for them.) I'd mix the coffee with my sawdust, lawn clippings, kitchen waste etc. and make absolutely incredible compost. The combination attracted worms by the thousands.
Among other things, I grew delphiniums a full 8 feet tall using that stuff. I don't know about where you live, but that's fairly amazing around here. 
Definitely compost it if you can.


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

I'm a small time woodworker but on a project I can make 6-10 thirty gallon bags. My transfer station has a mulch pile for leaves and chips. The culprit is the planer. Man, that can fill up my dust bag in a short time.


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

All my shavings and dust goes into my neighbours and our composter.
Once your neighbours see how nice a compost it makes they will ask for it.
If composting and you are putting in lawn clippings layers of sawdust stop them becoming a layer of slime and my worms seem to flourish.
I don't give it to anyone for animals as my dust and shavings are mixed. Shavings are a different matter. I however tell folk to remove the dust first.
In winter I burn it. I use a snorkel in my wood-burning stove this stops the sawdust smothering the flame.
When it is burned the ashes are very popular with gardeners who use this potash on flowers and vegetables. Don't use it on the garden if you use coal.
Offcuts burn. But remember your offcuts are a treasure to pen-makers. I've several folk who collect the offcuts one makes jewellery and I'm sure within LJ's a share could be done for shipping cost.

Jamie


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

rickf16- I had a friend who used to dump his sawdust in the woods behind his house. One day the DNR found out and fined him big time for improper disposal of toxic waste!


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## Pick (Feb 4, 2010)

I found a community garden co-op type place. They've got a giant compost and all I've got to do is drop off the bags and they take care of everything, they told me that they have some layering system--fine by me!


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## SnowyRiver (Nov 14, 2008)

I use some of it for fire starters for fireplace fires. I mix it with melted wax and pack it into egg carton compartments and let it harden. Then you can just break off one of the 12 cups and put it in the fireplace and light it…works great and no smoke. The rest goes in the compost.


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## Darell (Jul 23, 2008)

I got in a big arguement with my city's sanitation dept. They told me they can't take sawdust in our yard waste program. Said that sawdust doesn't break down like green grass, leaves, green and dead limbs. I asked how that even made sense. Samy types of wood as dead limbs and it's already chewed up. No dice. They won't take it. Told me to send it to the landfill. Go figure. For a forward looking communtiy we've got some backward thinking people running things. Still looking for a reasonable alternative.


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## alba (Jul 31, 2010)

Darell,
that would apply to coffee grinds as well then. 
I wonder what they would say to that?
Jamie


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## PeteMoss (Nov 24, 2008)

Dust collector waste goes in the garbage. Sometimes I save handplane shavings for fire tinder. Great for my son's Scout campouts. Walnut smells especially nice when burned.


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

Dust, chips, and shavings, non toxics get used as mulch, toxics get bagged up and put with the green waste.

cutoffs get saved up and burned in the fire pit on the patio, unless it was a nut or fruit bearing hardwood, particularly apple, mesquite, or pecan, those cutoffs go in the smoker for Texas smoked BBQ brisket…


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## NBeener (Sep 16, 2009)

*Wayne*:

That's an EXCELLENT idea !


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## Dcase (Jul 7, 2010)

I gave a few bags to someone I know who said they would be great for his rabbit cages. Other then that it all goes in the dumpster.


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## Eric_S (Aug 26, 2009)

Ive heard you can donate it to animal shelters for bedding but I dont know details. I was thinking of calling the humane society nearby to see if they could use it.


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## dbray45 (Oct 19, 2010)

Trash folks take my sawdust and burns it - recycle people won't touch. Cherry pieces go into the grill/smoker.

Anything with walnut cannot go to animal bedding - toxic to them.


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## AlexMcA (Dec 4, 2009)

Wayne:

I have to agree with the fire starters. It's a trick I learned in Scouts using dryer lint and candle stubs, but wood shavings work great too!


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## SnowyRiver (Nov 14, 2008)

Yeah, we started making fire starters a number of years ago. It was kind of funny because I had been using newspaper to start the fire and would always get smoke in the room. Once I switched to the homemade fire starters, no smoke. We have friends that do a lot of garage sales and have connections to churches so they pick up all the used candles they can find for us so we have a great program going on. 
Last month we made 24 dozen starters.


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## quadcap (Oct 27, 2010)

I was researching the idea of composting sawdust a while back… I found this article helpful, it describes why it can be more difficult to compost sawdust compared to leaves for example….

http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=889&bhcd2=1290539987


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

Anything that is just sawdust and chips goes in the ravine on the back side of my property.

Hardwood (deciduous) chunks, scraps, and cut-offs (that aren't usable for other projects) go into the wood stove.

Anything from soft woods (conifers) either goes in the outdoor fire pit or gets hauled to the landfill.


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## childress (Sep 14, 2008)

Quadcap - Decomposition works best with a 20:1 ratio of carbon to nitrogen. Sawdust has about a 400:1 ratio and needs nitrogen added to it so it breaks down faster. I add ammonium sulfate fertilizer (from HD) to help this and then layer it in my compost bin in between the green stuff (lawn clippings, veggies, etc.) It works great!


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## SnowyRiver (Nov 14, 2008)

It always kind of surprises me when I read garden know-how articles that talks about sawdust not being a good compost in gardens. I have taken a full bag off the dust collector in the fall and spread it all through the vegtable garden, tilled it in and the veggies were fantastic the next year…never have had a problem I dont put walnut dust in the garden however.

I have also piled the sawdust in a pile at the edge of the garden, covering it with all the clippings from the flower gardens and by spring its gone. I actually think leaves if not mulched are more difficult to compost than sawdust. I also use wood mulch (havent tried sawdust) around all the plants and flowers in the yard (I have a dozen gardens) and the plants and bushes grow like crazy.


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## Dez (Mar 28, 2007)

Many people in various parts of the world use a sawdust stove to cook and heat with.


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## Robinson (Jan 11, 2011)

Some folks may be able to use it for a shop toilet:
http://www.appropedia.org/Howtomakeanduseasawdusttoilet%28original%29
The version I liked as far as the composting used plastic barrels instead for composting. They used a row of barrels behind a shed. They were covered with tight lids that would shed rain water. They would change out the buckets, dump the filled bucket into the first barrel and sit the lid on it. The bucket was then hosed out and hung upside down over a post. When the first barrel was full they moved to the second and just let the first barrel sit for about a year. They had about a dozen barrels. One lady I knew of that used this system in Vermont had a very nice "box" all varnished up to use as her bathroom and it had room to hold a couple of empty buckets IIRC. It also had a vent pipe to keep the area from ever smelling. I also seem to recall that her sawdust container was a very nice wooden "hamper" also well finished. 
Some I discussed this with drilled drain holes in the bottom of the plastic barrels but I honestly couldn't tell you if the holes were a good ides or not.
I am going to put one in the Mechanics/metal shop and in my main 6 stall stable. None will get much use but there are times like during a bad storm or if time is suddenly short that anything is better than nothing. 

I don't need one in the wood shop I am "still" sitting up since it is in part of our former, now unused, house (actually our former store building attached to the house) and it has a full bathroom and septic system.
This is a farm so I don't really have a sawdust disposal problem but I do use it sometimes to spread on paths during mud season. Cut-offs help feed the woodstove.


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## sarahss (Feb 23, 2011)

We just finished laying and grouting 1000 sf of floor tile. Slightly damp sawdust is really good for helping remove the grout haze that is left on the tiles after sponging. We used it on man made (porcelain or ceramic??) tiles as well as travertine, but not on the highly polished granite, as we didn't want to risk damaging the finish. Really helped to remove the haze. We also compost some of it.


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## MichaelJ (Aug 14, 2009)

Here in Minneapolis, the city burns all of their trash which also generates electricity. My sawdust just goes in the trash.


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## dpop24 (May 14, 2011)

We are soon moving to our new house on 10 acres. I'm dying to get my shop up and running so that I can use the sawdust to mix into the dirt on the motocross track I'll be building. It helps the dirt to hold water better and helps keep it from turning into hard clumpy clods and ruts.


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