Wood Waste 
aE an eS ee a Teas eg SS 
Tightening of the raw-material situation in the 
timber industries throughout the country and acute 
shortages in many localities are focusing attention 
on wood waste. In this report “waste” is used in 
an intrinsic rather than an economic sense. Wood 
not used is classed as waste whether or not its 
utilization is now economically feasible.2* The 
urgent need for lumber and the rapidly expanding 
market for pulp and paper provide powerful in- 
centives for the reduction and use of waste in the 
woods. Better prices now make it possible to use 
material that formerly could not be handled at a 
profit. New uses for wood and improvement of 
manufacturing processes also open the way for 
more complete use of our timber. And making 
use of wood now wasted creates jobs that add to the 
economic welfare of timber-dependent communities. 
So it is well to consider the quantity and source of 
waste; its location and availability; how and to what 
extent it may be used; and how better use fits into 
a forest-conservation program. 
Quantity, Source, and Location of Waste 
An enormous amount of wood is wasted every 
year in converting trees into usable products. Only 
43 percent by weight of the wood we cut, destroy 
in logging, or import appears in products other 
than fuel (fig. 18). ‘Thirty-five percent is not used 
at all and the remaining 22 percent is used for fuel 
2* More specifically, waste refers to wood from the forest 
which does not appear in marketable products other than 
fuel. It does not include bark or byproducts like lath, 
shingles, pulpwood, wood flour, or baled shavings, or the 
volume of trees cut primarily for fuel; but it does include 
byproduct fuel-wood in woods and mill from trees cut for 
other products. Also included are losses of fiber, lignin, 
and other chemical substances in pulp processing. ‘This dis- 
cussion deals with waste in logging, manufacture of primary 
timber products, and remanufacture of lumber, but not with 
waste in other remanufacture or in use of products. Addi- 
tional discussion and data are given in Reappraisal Report 4, 
Wood Waste in the United States. U. S. Dept. Agr., Forest 
Service. 1947. 
—often very inefficiently. In 1944, wood waste was 
estimated at 108.9 million tons (table 22). 
Logging waste accounted for 45 percent of the 
total, and only 7 percent of it was used for fuel. 
Most of the logging waste is in cut trees, but other 
trees destroyed during logging and slash disposal 
account for 12 percent of the waste in the woods. 
Some of the logging waste is suitable for lumber, 
especially in the Douglas-fir subregion. 
Primary manufacture accounted for 49 percent 
of the waste in 1944. Almost half of this is in 
slabs, edgings, and other coarse material; another 
three-eighths is sawdust, shavings, and other fine 
material. The remainder (one-sixth) is fiber, 
lignin, and other chemical waste in pulp processing. 
In sharp contrast to the 7 percent of logging waste, 
62 percent of the waste in primary manufacture is 
used for fuel. Some of this is sold for domestic 
use, but most of it is used in the plants where it 
originates. 
TABLE 22.—Wood waste, United States, 1944 
Nature of waste Quantity 
sere Million 
Logging: tons 1 Percent 
Partsrofscutitrees sera ee 43.3 
iRrees: (destroyed! eee ee eee ; 5.7 5 
AR Obal eee ie eee ae ene ee 49.0 45 
Primary manufacture: 
Slabs, edgings, and other coarse 
Ta terial eee een eee ee 24.5 23 
Sawdust, shavings, and other fine 
material............ BEE een tne 19.8 18 
Lignin and other pulping waste... 8.6 8 
Mota eee ee ee ee eee 52.9 497 
Secondary manufacture of lumber........ 7.0 6 
Dotal, ad Se ee ee eee 108.9 100 
12,000 pounds, oven-dry. 
Waste in secondary manufacture of lumber is 
estimated at 6 percent of the total. All of this is 
presumed to be used for fuel. Although not in- 
cluded in this analysis, secondary losses of smaller 
62 Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
