Progress in wood residue use in California

Abstract

The manufacture of products from wood may be described as a reduction process, and this reduction in volume from raw material to product occurs at nearly all levels within the industry. It begins with tremendous quantities of residues-not waste-in the woods and continues on through the processing. It is fairly common in some manufacturing to convert less than half of the raw material into a final product. Recovery is seldom greater than 75%. From the industry's standpoint, "waste" is defined as a failure to recover the value inherent in a given amount of raw material. "Residue" is the remnant of the original raw material left after the economic value has been removed. By these definitions, some waste unquestionably occurs within the industry, but by far the biggest problem is with residues. These residues occur in huge volumes and have a negative value because of the costs of disposal. Since use of residues is becoming increasingly important, I hope to present here some of the reasons for this increase in use, the status of the current harvest and utilization, and data on use of residues for products. There are specific economic and political reasons for the effort to increase the utilization of wood residues. Foremost is a simple need for a greater recovery of product from the log. This need is based on increased competition for both raw materials and markets, which has resulted in higher stumpage costs, and a lower relative profit margin. Furthermore, the industry in the west is faced with a changing timber supply as the stand is converted to younger and smaller trees.