What can i do with my offcuts?

[Cordy]

Offcuts from this Adi

Made this

It's not rocket science

 

[woodbrains]

It burns really well in a wood-burner. Hot and clean without much ash. Best thing for it if it's just a lot of off cuts. I've burnt tons of the stuff.
Lots of rumours about hazards but no evidence that I've read anywhere. Must be less polluting than coal, I imagine.
People like scare stories.

Hello,

The contents of your wood burner are entirely besides the point. Most health organisations around the world classify the formaldehyde resin as a probable human carcinogen or a known human carcinogen responsible for nasal cancers and possible leukaemia. MDF emits these above safe maximum levels for months after manufacture and continually throughout its life. Sealing/painting the stuff probably makes it acceptable in the home, but you go ahead and burn it, it is only everyone's air after all. In fact scratch that, you are in business and it is illegal to do so.

Mike.

 

[whiskywill]

Oi mignal have you been hiding in my workshop???

Adidat

And mine.

 

[PAC1]

It burns really well in a wood-burner. Hot and clean without much ash. Best thing for it if it's just a lot of off cuts. I've burnt tons of the stuff.
Lots of rumours about hazards but no evidence that I've read anywhere. Must be less polluting than coal, I imagine.
People like scare stories.

Hello,

The contents of your wood burner are entirely besides the point. Most health organisations around the world classify the formaldehyde resin as a probable human carcinogen or a known human carcinogen responsible for nasal cancers and possible leukaemia. MDF emits these above safe maximum levels for months after manufacture and continually throughout its life. Sealing/painting the stuff probably makes it acceptable in the home, but you go ahead and burn it, it is only everyone's air after all. In fact scratch that, you are in business and it is illegal to do so.

Mike.

Mike, I would be very interested to see the evidence base for this as everything I have read about European manufactured mdf says it is the wood dust that is the health risk. If there is serious problem with the level of formaldehyde in mdf I would like to know.

 

[Jacob]

It burns really well in a wood-burner. Hot and clean without much ash. Best thing for it if it's just a lot of off cuts. I've burnt tons of the stuff.
Lots of rumours about hazards but no evidence that I've read anywhere. Must be less polluting than coal, I imagine.
People like scare stories.

Hello,

The contents of your wood burner are entirely besides the point. Most health organisations around the world classify the formaldehyde resin as a probable human carcinogen or a known human carcinogen responsible for nasal cancers and possible leukaemia. MDF emits these above safe maximum levels for months after manufacture and continually throughout its life. Sealing/painting the stuff probably makes it acceptable in the home, but you go ahead and burn it, it is only everyone's air after all. In fact scratch that, you are in business and it is illegal to do so.

Mike.

If its that unpleasant burning it sounds like a good idea! We don't want it hanging around in the workshop, or landfill for that matter. And no it isn't illegal to burn it.

PS I avoid burning plastics/laminates as they pong outside with black smoke, unless you burn with dampers open but then too hot.

 

[lurker]

Woodbrains

I think you are a bit behind the times or getting your info from American sources
There is very little free formaldehyde in the MDF that can be legitimately purchased in the UK

You say "MDF emits these above safe maximum levels for months after manufacture and continually throughout its life".
If you read the research reports done by the HSE you will know this is untrue.

Although machining MDF produces a higher level of fine (respirable) dust it is no more hazardous than other woods

Have a look on HSE website for the facts, here is a snippet:

MDF boards manufactured in Europe for construction purposes must meet the appropriate European standards. These are BS EN 622-1:2003 Fibreboards-Specifications - Part 1: General requirements and BS EN 622-5:2009 Fibreboards - Specifications - Part 5: Requirements for dry process boards (MDF). There are two European formaldehyde classes, E1 and E2, depending on levels of formaldehyde emission measured. The release of formaldehyde from E1 boards is less than 0.1 ppm (parts per million) and for E2 boards it is between 0.1 ppm and 0.3 ppm.

 

[lurker]

It burns really well in a wood-burner. Hot and clean without much ash. Best thing for it if it's just a lot of off cuts. I've burnt tons of the stuff.
Lots of rumours about hazards but no evidence that I've read anywhere. Must be less polluting than coal, I imagine.
People like scare stories.

off at a tangent:
A coal fired power station releases more radioactivity in one month into the environment, than all of the UK's Nuclear power stations have done in their entire existence.

like Jacob says, folks like scare stories and anything they don't understand is scary.

 

[shed9]

like Jacob says, folks like scare stories and anything they don't understand is scary.

Yup, I can subscribe to that, been the mainstay of media and newspapers for hundreds of years.

 

[mind_the_goat]

off at a tangent:
A coal fired power station releases more radioactivity in one month into the environment, than all of the UK's Nuclear power stations have done in their entire existence.

That's a variant of a oft quoted 'fact'. It is true that if you live downwind of a coal fired power station you would be exposed to more radiation that you would receive from an equivalently sized, correctly functioning nuclear power station, possibly up to 100 times more, this increase is still a relatively small proportion (6%) of background radiation. There are a lot more coal fired power stations in the UK than Nuclear ones, the one month figure sounds unlikely, but could be right, either way the radiation released directly by UK power stations in not large. However, there have been a number of nuclear incidents, Sellafield has had a number of issues, not least being in 1957 when a fire at a reactor designed to produce weapons grade material caused a major release of radioactive material, dwarfing any release by power stations.

 

[mind_the_goat]

I assumed that when I go to our local "recycling centre" aka tip and dump my offcuts of wood/mdf/chipboard etc. in the designated waste container that at least a percentage of it somehow got recycled?
I'd like to think that a lot of wood/wood product waste gets re-used in a new product rather than sent to landfill.
But perhaps I'm being naïve?

I'd assumed a lot of it ended up in biomass power stations.

 

[woodbrains]

Woodbrains

I think you are a bit behind the times or getting your info from American sources
There is very little free formaldehyde in the MDF that can be legitimately purchased in the UK

You say "MDF emits these above safe maximum levels for months after manufacture and continually throughout its life".
If you read the research reports done by the HSE you will know this is untrue.

Although machining MDF produces a higher level of fine (respirable) dust it is no more hazardous than other woods

Have a look on HSE website for the facts, here is a snippet:

MDF boards manufactured in Europe for construction purposes must meet the appropriate European standards. These are BS EN 622-1:2003 Fibreboards-Specifications - Part 1: General requirements and BS EN 622-5:2009 Fibreboards - Specifications - Part 5: Requirements for dry process boards (MDF). There are two European formaldehyde classes, E1 and E2, depending on levels of formaldehyde emission measured. The release of formaldehyde from E1 boards is less than 0.1 ppm (parts per million) and for E2 boards it is between 0.1 ppm and 0.3 ppm.

Hello,

Fair enough, but of course we are talking about burning it. Does burning formaldehyde sound like a good idea to anyone? IMO burning natural wood is carbon neutral, it is a natural material, there is little natural about MDF and it should not be assumed to be comparable. And as far as I know, should only be burned in controlled incinerators, with controlled emissions. If that is not enough warning as to how the stuff should be treated, then I don't know what is. But of taking care of the environment is always someone else's responsibility.

Mike.

 

[Jelly]

It burns really well in a wood-burner. Hot and clean without much ash. Best thing for it if it's just a lot of off cuts. I've burnt tons of the stuff.
Lots of rumours about hazards but no evidence that I've read anywhere. Must be less polluting than coal, I imagine.
People like scare stories.

Hello,

The contents of your wood burner are entirely besides the point. Most health organisations around the world classify the formaldehyde resin as a probable human carcinogen or a known human carcinogen responsible for nasal cancers and possible leukaemia. MDF emits these above safe maximum levels for months after manufacture and continually throughout its life. Sealing/painting the stuff probably makes it acceptable in the home, but you go ahead and burn it, it is only everyone's air after all. In fact scratch that, you are in business and it is illegal to do so.

Mike.

Mike, I would be very interested to see the evidence base for this as everything I have read about European manufactured mdf says it is the wood dust that is the health risk. If there is serious problem with the level of formaldehyde in mdf I would like to know.

Norboard's MSDS's suggest no formaldehyde hazard, and knowimg the uses and chemistry of Urea-Formaldehyde resins, I'd think off-gassing of formaldehyde after curing would be a fundamental failure of process control.

Did you know that Urea-Formaldehyde is used as an agricultural fertiliser too?

It would be liable to generate noxious compounds when heated to enough to cause decomposition (and indeed, you'd likely be able to light the dense smoke from smouldering MDF due to the VOC's)... but the same is true of candles.

And no it isn't illegal to burn it.

You're not wrong there, but you're not right either.

It depends entirely why you were burning it.

MDF is not even close to being banned from being burned, and isn't mentioned by name anywhere in waste legislation (at the UK, EU and UN levels).

That said, burning waste from a business is illegal without an appropriate exemption or permit from the local authority or the EA...

Using offcuts as fuel for woodburner is a complex case, as during the winter one could argue they weren't waste as you still had a use (fuel) for them; whilst burning them to be rid of them during weather where you didn't need the heat, would clearly be illegal.

To further complicate matters, you could stockpile offcuts in the summer for use as winter fuel, but it might become Illegal again if you to stockpiled them for more than one year, or had too large a pile of them.

 

[Monkey Mark]

How about making things like bird houses for friends /family or to sell. Still helping the environment by helping nature.
Or bee/insect houses.

 

[Jacob]

Fair enough! I burn them for heat. I save them through the summer.
I also burn all paper and card - for heat again - it's a really quick way to get a blast of warmth without waiting for a wood fire to get warmed up. I burn all of it - recycling bin always empty of paper/card. The only prob is the fairly large amount of fine dusty ash, as compared to the small amounts you get with wood or mdf.

 

[Akin Akinfolarin]

The proper thing to do with any off cuts is to hoard them for the next fifteen years repeatedly moving them around your workshop on an almost bi-monthly basis, whilst at the same time deluding yourself that they are really useful and you will probably rue the day you threw them out if you ever did.

That my struggle

 

[RobNichols]

That my struggle

All of us!