How to Get Rid of Scrap Wood

Scrap wood (or wood waste) can seem like an inconvenient and low-value woodworking byproduct, one to be ignored or cleaned up and thrown away. Lumber mills, firewood dealers, flooring companies, and cabinet companies all tend to end up with large amounts of wood waste and scrap wood that they may not know what to do with. 

That makes sense. 

Figuring out just how to get rid of scrap wood can easily stump you. 

Without knowing how to get rid of scrap wood, you could easily end up with large amounts of wood waste lying around your shop or mill. You could throw your wood scrap away, or give sawdust to nearby farmers for bedding.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that approach, you should know that your wood waste and scrap wood can be much more than just a pesky problem to solve.

With briquetting, a simple way to make dense, high-quality wood pucks or briquettes out of your scrap wood and sawdust, you won’t have to handle the headaches of selling scrap or dealing with wood waste. Instead, you’ll be able to make a profit from your byproducts! 

In this piece, we’ll discuss how to get rid of scrap wood via recycling, vacuum, and briquetting – and talk about just how accessible briquetting can be. 

The Value-Adding Magic of Scrap Wood Recycling and Sawdust Recycling: Why Do It?

If you’re wondering not just how to get rid of scrap wood or sawdust, but (more specifically) why, let’s take a quick look at what scrap wood recycling or briquetting can do for you. 

As it turns out, practicing consistent scrap wood disposal can pay off in spades. If you’re able to find a way to get rid of your excess wood manufacturing byproducts and protect the environment or perhaps even make a little money, that’s a decent bargain.

Wood briquettes, or bricks made from wood waste (e.g., sawdust and wood scrap), can be used as a renewable heat source. Even better: When you burn briquettes, they emit less carbon dioxide than conventional fossil fuels, giving them a cleaner burn than many alternatives. They’re also easy to handle and can be transported simply in bins and hoppers. 

Wood briquettes are also far more valuable than wood waste or wood scraps. Run that starting material through a briquetting machine, and you’ll make more when you sell them than you would initially. 

Need another reason to consider wood waste briquetting and wood scrap recycling? Beyond adding value to your wood byproducts, you’ll also be resolving a safety issue. 

Keeping wood waste around is dangerous. Keeping large piles of wood waste is a fire hazard – and either a tripping or falling hazard, depending on the placement of the stacks of wood. Even sawdust or degrading wood particles around puts your workers at risk of inhaling wood dust into their lungs. This can result in anything from occupational asthma to lung cancer. 

Between the creation of renewable heat sources, improved safety, and increased products, it’s clear that there’s a lot of value to be found in briquetting. In the next section, we’ll discuss a few ways you can realize those benefits.

Other Popular Methods for Getting Rid of Scrap Wood

If it’s time to get rid of scrap wood, you need to know how it’s got to go. Here are a few of the most common ways people clear their corners of scrap wood or wood waste: 

  1. Wood scrap reuse and recycling: You can repurpose these materials for composting, reducing soil erosion, agriculture, and even select types of fuel. (However, in order to take full advantage of wood scrap and sawdust recycling, you do have to figure out a way to contain the raw material.) 
  2. Disposal at a wood processing facility or landfill: If you’ve got a considerable amount of wood waste and have no idea what to do with it, relocating it to the nearest landfill or processing facility can seem like a tempting option. This isn’t the most sustainable option, though – and it’s far from the most economical. (Disposing of wood at a landfill can be surprisingly pricey.) 
  3. Briquetting wood chips and sawdust for easy removal: Briquetting is the process of pressing down scraps and loose waste wooden materials into compact, ultra-portable compressed wood bricks (or ‘briquettes’). In the next section, we’ll talk about the many benefits you can realize with a briquette machine.

Wood Scrap Recycling with a Briquette Machine

A briquette press is a versatile tool that allows you to clean up more than just wood. With a briquette press, you can compact metal, aluminum, grinding swarf, biomass, and other residual materials into briquettes. 

Wooden briquettes offer many advantages, including: 

At RUF, we make wood briquette presses that offer a high expense-to-benefit ratio. They’re simple to operate (just plug and press!), have low consumption of electricity relative to their performance, don’t break down easily, and are made to be incorporated directly into your existing production processes.  
Our goal is not only to enable you to briquette as you please: We’re also here to assist with planning out your briquetting processes, helping you assemble your press, and leveraging this new strategy to truly benefit you and your company. Give our team a call today to learn more about what briquetting can do for you!