Growing amount of saw dust

When a tree is first cut up, about 40% of the wood is waste, according to a rule of thumb. Therefore of 2.5 million cubic meters sawed wood in Switzerland each year result in approximately 1 million cubic meters waste wood, or better by-products. About 35 per cent of this waste wood is of the quality saw dust and wood flour. For these 350,000 cubic meters there is hardly any demand in Switzerland (according to SIHV, situation in 1999).

The wood industry demands almost exclusively slabs/trimmings, wood chips and shavings but hardly any saw dust or wood flour. Growing capacities of the saw mills will lead to an increasing overhang of saw dust and wood flour in the near future. The trend towards different sorts of massive wood boards also entails a growing amount of saw dust: Since this panels are made of small size low quality wood this also leads to more cuts per trunk and therefore more saw dust.