USES TOR FOREST WASTE / / By L. H. REIHEKE, Technologist Forest Products Laboratory,- Forest U. S. Department of Agriculture Increased attertion is "being directed toward the utilization of forest wastes in the interests of conservation and better business manage- ment. Information on the subject is being requested constantly of the Forest Products Laboratory by people in the forest and wood-using indus- tries, by those who contemplate entering these industries, and by ethers interested in the conservation of timber supplies. For such information to be useful to the greatest number of inquirers, therefore, consideration of the problems involved necessitates the discussion of some aspects of waste utilization that are quite obvious to the experienced operator but less apparent to others. The existence of forest waste is proverbial. Much of this waste is uncontrollable, yet a large portion of it is capable of reduction. Since wood lacks the plastic flow qualities necessary for such major reshaping as is dons with metals, the irregularly round shape and varying dimensions of the tree must be reduced to the required shape and size by removal of ex- traneous material. Farts of the trees, or entire trees^s** rejected for a specific use because of size, shape, H""" 1 ,! tin * | nil? l Such forest residue is often increased by poor operaiTinafyr;lctf&^/\P oy fcisraanufacture, and some woeds mismanufacture is theid^Mv'VMuse of waste i\ later stages of processing, \ The total amount of forest residues wjrsled through noiuse can be reduced by preventive measures. The Portion of the residue dv\e. to the nature of the raw material is unavoidable, of cour.se , n i^OfW>n )VC!::erits ^ n operating practices and processing rqulpnef^^pa^tolmr ~ ;ner waste of — - ii,r s,'" ,,w " , i " usable material. Some residues unsuitqq^Xca^-ofiTr product may be usable for another; hence, the harvesting of several products, such as tics and pulp- wood in addition to logs, rather than sawlogs alone, is both a preventive and a salvage measure. Possibilities of using forest residues are often severely limited by difficulties in handling and segregating them, or by their unadsptability to the consumer's needs or to his manufacturing processes. The consuming market may not be favorably located with respect to the source of the ma- terial or capable of absorbing all of it. The quantities available may be -Maintained at Madison 5. Wis., in cotperation with the University of Wisconsin, Report No, R1666-3 June I9U7 too limited for low-cost handling. Costs of fuel or construction materi Led to replace residues sold reduce the grains from sale of v . • . J: ly, wood residur s may be of such fore, condition, or species that srrious technical difficulties will preclude their use for regular products with alt r equipment. V. r - ste i- re vent ion It is a sound principle that the conversion of raw materials into their principal products is more profitable than the reworking into secondary products, because the market demand is usually . • r for principal products and they are in better form for efficient r - facture. Within limits, then, it pays to put extra effort into incr> yields of the primary operation, through training of labor, correction of equipment defects, and diversification of products. Logging crews c be trained to avoid breakage in falling trees and damage to the resic stand. Special attention in bucking has to be given to proper trimming allowance (so that boards will not lack an inch or two in length and have to be trimmed back, in the case of softwoods, to the next even 2 feet), to selection of log lengths that will eliminate crook, sweep, or grouped de- fects, and to placement of cuts to improve log grade and get additional products, such as ties or posts from the upper portions of the trees. Woods labor requires training to use wood from tops and low-value trees or species, instead of from straight young trees of desirable species, for road construction, cribbing, corduroy, drains, cordwcod stakes, truck stakes, load-tightening levers, skidways, camp structures, or like purposes. C fuel should be derived from logging slash or unmarketable species. Harvesting Squipment B rvesting equipment is recognized to have an important bearing on both waste prevention and salvage of waste. When the equipment is not adapted to the lagging chance, or it is too heavy for the mater: 1 b ndled, it may not be able to handle profitably material that could be taken, at a profit, with lighter or better-rdapted equipment. For example, in cutting small southern pine for pulpwood on the flatlands of the South, the wheel- mounted circular power saw makes ground-level stumps possible at a 0,2 cord per acre increase in yield, and light tractors in the Northwest can profit- ably recover slash and small trees on which the customary heavy equipment would lose money. Maintenance of equipment in first-class working con- dition, plus organization of work tg minimize handling, makes it possible to recover more material profitably and to reduce waste accordingly. Careful planning of the operation also makes it possible to remove a diversity of products, Instead cf some such single product s s.wlogs. Multiple products not only utilize more of the *: ut permit raising of I des by providing ! -:•■ ■ ter range for selection. Poles, pulpwccd, mine props, ties, posts, boxboard bolts, and cordwood are some of the products y be removed in conjunction with veneer or sawlcg cuttings. Report Ho, RI066-3 -2- Salvage of Waste The woods operator has some opportunities to utilize waste in his own operation, as indicated previously. Additional and more extensive opportunity is provided by the recovery of marketable secondary products. The sale of cordwood for fuel or pulpwood is an important outlet in some regions for material from tops, defective trees, noncommercial species, or thinnings. The production of charcoal, or of chipped wood for various uses, may be practical. Shirt logs of good material may "He recovered for sawed products, such as boards, squares, and the like, or for staves and numerous small products. Short billets of clear material may be cut from between branch whorls for such items as rotary-cut or sliced "box veneer and paper cores. Slicer billets may be cut from hollow butts or from trimmings cut from logs to improve their grade. Other outlets for forest waste, especially from thinnings, include fencing of varied types, bean and hop poles, grape, tree, and oyster- "bed stakes. Unfortunately, there are no dealers purchasing woods waste for resale to a variety of users; the nearest approach to it is the retail fuel wood dealer. Both for the finished items made from waste (posts, ties, etc.) and the rough billets for other products, individual customers usually must be sought. For some products produced in relatively small quantity by individual operators, where sales or processing are difficult and costly, a cooperative concentration yard or secondary processing plant serving a group of operators may be feasible. Field of Utilization Forest waste is potentially usable in varied forms: (l) in original or natural form (fuelwood, posts, litter for mulch); (2) in mechanically modified form (sawed or shaped, chipped, defibered, ground, laminated); (3) in chemically modified form (chemical pulp, distillation, saccharifica- tion, extraction, hydrogenation, impregnation); and (U) in biochemically modified form (as in composted litter or in yeast and other fermentation products following saccharification) . Numerous properties and characteristics are exploitable, and in many products it is the mechanical and physical properties that are employed. Uses for mechanical properties are common-place. Waste wood constitutes a large source of fiber, heat energy, or chemicals. In some cases, appearance is the exploited characteristic, as in rustic furniture, in figured veneer products made from burls, stumps, crotches, etc., and in novelty or deco- rative products, such as holly leaves, mistletoe, pine boughs and cones, autumn leaves, tops of evergreens as Christmas trees, and birch Vark. Also, odor is exploited in fir pillows and pine-oil soaps. Bulk and heat-insula- ting values of forest litter are utilized in bedding and mulching. Sound and thermal insulation, as well as strength properties of wood fiber, are employed in insulating boards, papers, and other pulp products. Use of wood for chemicals may involve simply the extraction of soluble constituents by leaching (tannin) , vaporizing by steam (wood oils) , or chemical treatment Report No. RI666-3 -3- to liberate the desired constituents. Other chemicals not present as such p.ay be derived by conversion of the wood by hydrogenation, hydrolysis, bacterial action, or destructive distillation. Sy comburtion, useful h( energy is released for power and other uses. The resulting chemical products are discarded, except for some use of ashes as fertilizer. Any program for the utilization of forest waste will depend in large measure on the vigor and the business acumen of the individual manage- ment in adapting the program to the circumstances peculiar to the materials and location anc* on the seizing of temporary market opportunities as well as the finding of existing or the encouraging of new stable outlets. Best control of marketing obviously results from internal adjustments of the operation by which the needs of the operator can be met by using waste or lower-cuality material to release better material for production, or by which secondary products from waste can be produced by the operator and marketed through the regular sales channels. For example, a sawmill cutti. its own timber and selling part of it as box material may work with the box manufacturer to develop a line of boxes to be made from veneer sliced from billets taken from tops, branches, broken trees, or partially defective logs; or a forest owner may promote a cooperative concentration yard for accumulating salable quantities of props, veneer-grade logs, or other spe- cialty items for which the quantity produced oy the individual operator is too small for ready sale. In setting up a program for waste utilization, the individual operator must make his own selection of outlets, since uses that are profit- able in one region or under one set of circumstances may be money losers 1 another. Knowledge of conditions on the operation and of kinds and quan- tities of waste available, plus 'aiov; ledge of nearby markets, is necessary to an intelligent choice of product to be made from the waste. To assist in such choice, the following tables 1-4 give, as fully as present informa- tion permits, a fairly complete list of uses for forest waste, with supple- mentary information on specifications, markets, consumption, and the like. In column two of these tables the heading "Unmerchantable" applies to species of wood. Report No. R1666-3 -4- i a i % 5 - 1 t » c ! J j 1 | .. s as I 1 a ; o 111 HI i ! 4 j Ii is :-zt i »•;! "•a ss,3 f ale g.8 51-35 8 °~- 9i s ^1 5 i .1*1 ..s g * - & . * 5 « * s . f as -*5|i ii le 8 3 . t .31- S.H 3 2a- : -8 Stt^-E -^ T!i,8 : « t? •-< a q • o a •• • • iM ! N; • • • o • a a a a a s & a&s 9 S 9 HI 11 1 111 a a a a a a \ t : * k • « : | D 1 i i : ! 3 • i ii S °: 9 fl * 5 • O O ".3 iv 3.2 12 si u i 9 1 i f ; -IIS . 112. ■Hi : : .1 v ; :f i 5 ■ • o -h •« h .1 1 M.| ■ u w . -a ' 5 C : : - 5 -« d . • o,-« ^t J! 1 A : :Sli :'s !!3l 2 S3 : : S & : 3i& : '5! a o, i -a ti h>h . 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