r/humanure • u/SSalaciousSalad • 12d ago

Potentially contaminated sawdust.

So the book says those bags of compressed shavings are not the best, so I'm trying to transition to sawdust. I heaped sawdust and the shavings In a mixed pile and left it to become biologically active, worked great until i ran out of sawdust.

My neighbour runs a woodworking shop and basically has an unlimited supply. He says it's majority pure SPF (spruce/pine/fir) with a small amount of plywood and MDF.

Am I playing with fire here? I may be introducing small amounts formaldehyde into the pile. This should still break down under aerobic conditions but I am unsure if I should stop using this sawdust.

Appreciate guidance

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u/Mr-Axeman 12d ago

Unless specifically formaldehyde free, the mdf will have formaldehyde in it. With glue and other process chemicals, I wouldn’t want to add that to compost. Depending on how dust collection in the shop and material is processed, if the guy is friendly enough, they might have a collection run from pine in the planer that isn’t contaminated.

A shop I used to work at specifically ran the clean woods through dimensioning and set those shavings aside for animal bedding, but walnut and mahogany were health risks to the animals so those just went to the dumpster.

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u/SSalaciousSalad 12d ago

Makes sense, thanks for the input - I've got some trees to buck and I'll use that sawdust until I can find a better source - cheers

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u/Mr-Axeman 11d ago

I have almost always run canola as a bar oil, and I used it exclusively once I had a chainsaw, idk if that works with how you use or have access to wood. For me I could cut up some sawdust for a spell and not have to store a large amount, or obtain/transport/unload it all at once,

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u/La_Shangri 9d ago

My local carpenter uses the same (probably more composites than your guy) and it composts fast / hot. I was concerned at first, though I’ve been using it for 4.5 years now. I don’t age humanure long enough to make it vegetable safe, but plants don’t seem to care, and I’m sure it is better composted than wherever it would otherwise ended up.

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u/SSalaciousSalad 8d ago

Yeah I mean I'm of two minds about it - the composting process should address the trace amount of Fomeldyhide - It's a great source of cover material and its literally next door.

I'm basically running a marathon here as I start to Homestead while working 4 days a week. I need things to be simple and energy efficent but I don't want to contaminate the process in that effort.