Converting Sawmill Waste Stream Material Into Higher Value Solid Wood Products

There is a need to increase yield and reduce waste in most sawmills. The conversion of waste stream material into higher valued products offers simultaneous solutions to both needs. However, few recovery operations exist and data for study cannot be found. Consequently, few sawmills believe that converting waste stream material into higher valued products offers a solution. Millions of recoverable solid wood fiber tons are annually reduced into low value chips, mulch and fuel. Meanwhile, sawmills continue suffering from reduced availability of forest resources, higher raw material costs, growing waste disposal problems, increased global competition, and more pressure to operate in an Environmentally Friendly manner. PROJECT OBJECTIVE: Determine the feasibility for converting waste stream material into higher valued products while justifying a viable solution to increasing yield, reducing waste volume and generating revenue for implementation of a profitable on or off site Recovery Value Adding (RVA) operation. DESCRIPTION OF EFFORT: The project entails collecting waste stream material from five different types of hardwood sawmills, converting the material into uniform blanks into a range of varying Value Added products, identifying customers and values for each product, and extrapolating the accumulated data into a comprehensive report validating the concept.