Dust collection disposal


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See if some of the local community gardens want a mulch or worm bed material, and donate/dump the bag off.  (Some of this needs to be coordinated before you fill the bag, or remove the full bag.)

 

Also, check with a couple of the local Scouting Troops and Packs: they may want (free) sawdust to make fire starters.  They probably won't take the whole bag you've got, but a shoebox full would be easy for them to deal with.  Depending on how many units there are, you might find it easier to host them all in one night at your place (and get some of them interested in woodworking at the same time.)

 

I'm fairly lucky in that most of my wood dust/shavings don't get collected; the breeze takes care of much of that fine stuff for me, and the larger chunks are actually helping to reduce the forest of weeds behind my air conditioning unit that the landscapers refuse to take care of.  I still have smaller bags of dust I get rid of, though.  I have to be careful because the complex uses a compactor, and I tend to get out partial grocery bag sizes rather than large trash bag sizes.  (then again, there's that local ordinance about "construction waste" that I have to be wary of... and I've been told sawdust in large quantities is considered construction waste.)

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Shavings from rough turning wet wood goes to my friend who has chickens to be recycled as bedding, then compost. 

 

Saw dust and planer chips are usually mixed wood, and often contain plywood and exotics. This gets bagged and sent to the landfill with the garbage. 

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I give most of mine to a friend who owns a restaurant. He uses it to hot smoke some of his ingredients. I get bottles of wine in return.

The exotic stuff and plywood, that might be toxic, goes to the local authority who use it in their anaerobic digester to produce fuel.

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it depends, mostly I put in the garbage.  sometimes I put it in a yard waste bag, but in my town we pay $2 or $3 for every bag of yard yaste and sometimes I don't feel like wasting one of the stickers on dust.   Sometimes I just spread it on the lawn and let the lawn mower spread it around.  Last winter I had fun putting it on top of the snow covered driveway and seeing how far the snowblower could throw it.   Variety is the spice of life I guess. 

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I give mine to my next door neighbour who has a horse. They use it in the stables. Not that I generate so much that they don't need to supplement it, but it's a start!

 

Be careful if you use walnut - I believe it's toxic to horses.

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There is a viral video on the internet of a guy who made a dust cloud fireball that was several stories high using fine wood dust, compressed air and an ignition source. I saw it on " Outrageous acts of Science " TV series. I would love to try it but knowing my luck I'd get arrested as a terrorist.

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There is a viral video on the internet of a guy who made a dust cloud fireball that was several stories high using fine wood dust, compressed air and an ignition source. I saw it on " Outrageous acts of Science " TV series. I would love to try it but knowing my luck I'd get arrested as a terrorist.

possibly the same source as the one the Mythbusters used, although for their Mythbuster-scale version they used powdered coffee creamer.

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