USES FOR SAWDUST

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 296, 6 March 1928, Page 13

USES FOR SAWDUST

30,0 X) TONS A YEAR GOOD FOR PACKING The sawdust man fills an important function in the city, says "The New York Times." The meat and fruit markets and packing houses would not be themselves without tlieir carpet of sawdust on the floor, and the sawdust man is responsible for bringing it there. He makes his regular round of the city planing mills and wood-work-ing factories and fills his bags from their sawdust piles for delivery to his customers. There are also dealers on a larger scale who use carload or truck lots, feeding it into machines that screen and bag it; then it is stored away according to size, species and grade to be sold for a wide variety of purposes. Disposal of sawdust is a real problem of the wood-working industry. It may not be dumped into streams or tidal waters, according to the laws of most States; and burning it often gets the manufacturer into difficulties since much of it is likely to blow about and be rated as a nuisance by neighbours. Industry, however, is now consuming more and more of it —not only for fuel, loose or in briquets, but in industrial processes; for sawdust is not just sawdust, but whole family of products varying in use according to the kind of wood from which it comes. Some 30,000 tons of sawdust are used yearly, it is estimated, in the meatcuring industry. Hickory is most in demand, but oak, mahogany, maple and other hardwoods are used to some extent. More than 22,000 tons are used as a filling medium in plaster board. In magnesite composition floors of residences and industrial buildngs and under ship decking as a covering for steel plates more is used. It is also mixed with clay to make porous hollow building tiles—the sawdust being consumed in firing, leaving the desired interstices. In the building of houses sawdust is used a insulating material for heat and sound, between the beams in the walls. The California grape-packing industry consumes more than 4,000 tons a year, sawdust proving superior to the cork dust formerly used, on account of its cheapness and retention of moisture. Spruce sawdust is preferred for this purpose. Sometimes it is mixed with douglas fir. Bottled and canned goods, too, are sometimes packed in sawdust. Moistened and sprinkeld on the floor of the cars in which nursery stock is shipped, or packed around the burlap coverings it keeps the roots from drying out in transit. Such sawdust as will not stain is useful in the manufacture of certain leathers, the hides being left overnight on damp sawdust piles to be conditioned for kneading and stretching. The leather industry consumes approximately 1,100 tons annually.