A man-made mountain of wood chips was created from sawmill, plywood plant and timber harvesting wastes that once were burned creating air pollution problems. Now these wood chips become useful products for export or for domestic manufacture. Particleboard, hardboard, roofing materials, molded products, plastic fillers, fertilizers, soil conditioners, chemicals, insulation and scores of other products use wood waste materials. Not many years ago, only a small proportion of residues accumulated in the processing of wood were utilized as by-products. Today the forest industry's efficiency has reached the stage where in many timber-producing states more than 80 percent of these residues are put to use. Bark, shavings, sawdust and other leftovers no longer are disposed of by burying or burning. Burying takes up valuable space. Burning is wasteful and contributes to pollution of the air. Instead, wood residues now are utilized in new forms, contributing not only to the efficiency of the industry, but to conservation of resources, to enhancement of the environment, and to the U.S. balance of payments through export trade. Examples of these new products include paper products of all kinds, particleboard, hardboard, roofing materials, molded products, plastic fillers, fertilizers, soil conditioners, decorative ground cover, chemicals, fuels, agricultural litter, placing materials, charcoal, insulation and concrete additives. Based on the processing of 40 billion board feet of timber annually, mills in the United States each year produce some 14-16 million tons of bark, six million tons of sawdust, 2.5 million tons of planer shavings and 20 million tons of coarse residues, including trimmings and slabs. Finding uses for bark has increased at a slower rate than those for wood fiber. But even here, a third of this type of residue is put to use as fuel and another five to 10 percent as soil conditioners, mulch and decorative ground cover. The manufacture of particleboard is often the first possibility considered by a manufacturer in facing the task of utilizing his wood residues. The market for this material has grown tremendously since the first American plant was established in 1945. The rate of expansion in particleboard manufacturing has been explosive due to fast developing technology and new uses for the product. Particleboard is made from a spectrum of wood residues ranging from dry sawdust to green solid wood in chip or flake form. The bulk of particleboard is used by the furniture trade and as core material for the manufacture of hardwood veneer and plywood. Consumption of wood chips similarly has increased tremendously. High quality wood chips are used for both paper and hardboard. Nationwide, mill residues account for about 30 percent of the 64 million cords of domestically produced virgin fiber consumed in pulp mills. In the South, mill residues account for 20 percent, and in the West, mill residues are the major supply to pulp mills. Finding new uses for wood residues is part of the progress that has been made in the past three decades to use more of the total tree. This drive has accelerated since portable barkers and chippers have been taken into the woods. At the mills, too, barking the logs and chipping slabs and trim means greater revenue along with elimination of the disposal problem. The extent of utilization of residues has grown tremendously in recent years. Nationwide, in 1967, by-products made from wood residues, not including bark, totaled the equivalent of 2,362,171,000 cubic feet of hard Railcar containing more than 70 tons of wood chips can be unloaded with this modern roll-over unloader in 90 seconds. A bulldozer cruises in a sea of wood chips at ship loading point. Chips bound for export make a substantial contribution to U.S. balance of payments and employment at mills and port facilities. woods and softwoods. Unused residues, which had to be disposed of by burning or other means, totaled 886,349,000 cubic feet or only about one-third of all nonbark residues. The Southern California lumber industry has attained a utilization record hard to beat. By 1968, utilization of both wood fiber and bark there had reached 99 percent. The Lower Columbia area of Washington State used 94 percent of its wood fiber residue that same year. The forest products industry is drawing close to the time when it can say it uses everything in the timber but the whine of the saw. The National Industrial Pollution Control Council has stated that increasing utilization of residues is among the most important factors in the reduction of solid wastes. For example, the State of Oregon in 1953 was able to utilize only about six percent of sawmill residues for paper and composition Barges, too, are used to move chips, here being loaded for transport. Dock strikes can have serious economic consequences. Chips are propelled into position for storage. There is constant movement as an inventory of wood residues await utilization as pulp, kraft paper and container board for export and for domestic manufacture into bags, containers and wrapping paper. boards. By 1967, some 60 percent of residues were utilized when the rise of domestic use and exports reached six million tons. This total reached approximately eight million tons in 1970. In 1969, about 1.7 million tons of wood residues were exported to Japan from Oregon alone. This export trade points up another advantage resulting from increased utilization of residues it gives a substantial boost to the nation's balance of trade. Export of chips and other wood residues means more money coming into the United States. The volume of chips and wood residues amassing at sawmills and other forest products installations is so great at any one time that delays in shipments can have a disastrous impact. Interruption of the normal flow of traffic out of a wood industry plant by rail, ship, barge or truck can cause a shutdown of the entire operation. Accumulation of the residue in time exhausts scarce storage space. With storage space gone, no more lumber or plywood can be produced. In addition, many mills face deficit operations by not being able to move their chip production. Just such a predicament occurred with the West Coast port shutdown by a longshoremen's union strike and by the United Transportation Union's strike against the railroads. Chips could not be moved from sawmills via the rails and could not be moved from port cities to overseas markets. The simultaneous labor disputes literally gave the wood industry, in boxing parlance, the old one-two. The forward-looking forest products industry will bounce back but the seriousness of the situation underscores the threat to the economy posed by breakdowns in the labor negotiation field. The industry, however, looks to new and more complete utilization of forest products and their residues in the future through further technological advance and more efficient operation. This will include utilization of limbs, branches and defective trees now left at the harvest site. "Crunch" went this "wigwam" waste burner as it was pulled down. This was a typical sight in the Pacific Northwest several years ago as the forest products industries fought pollution. New uses have been found for wood residues which formerly were burned. In two Oregon counties the mill waste volume was reduced 77 percent from 1955 to 1965. Another Oregon county had 200 burners operating in 1956 and only 11 remained in 1970. Prepared by: FOREST INDUSTRIES COUNCIL 1619 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 |