Environmentalist dilema

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trofeo

True Grumbler
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May 25, 2005
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Seattle, WA
Hi eveyrone,
Does, anyone know of a way to recycle or reuse/donate the shavings from a Morso moulding chopper? I bouth one used about 6 months ago, and now I have bags and bags of chips and shavings that I can't bring myself to throw into the dumpster, aka. "land fill". Does, anyone know of a lumber yard or a company that makes press board or MDF or something that takes saw dust and/or shavings to use?
Any advice would be great... Or other suggestions on what I could do with all these shavings!
I'm thinking performance art.....
 
Send them to the land fill, they will decompose unllike other stuff that goes there.

If your city collects yard trimmings to make into mulch, maybe they would take them, or take them home and make your own mulch.
 
Do YOU garden? They would make great mulch for your garden, be an interesting twist and sight for visitors. I would be careful about sending them to a public site, tho, in that many people use that mulch in their vegetable gardens...not sure about the finishes leeching off, may contain lead? Might get into the food?

Another thought would be to see if your local university may want them for one of their ceramics classes for raku fired pottery. The chopped pieces MAY be a bit large, but mixed with finer shavings could bring about an very interesting effect.
 
Yay!
2 good suggestions.. Thank you both!
I guess the land fill has many more contaminating things in there than some frames, but I guess I was thinking of the chemicals and finishes being bad. I don't feel so bad anymore.. and I will try the University, as I think the raku idea could be really cool..
Thanks again
Sara
 
I checked with our local recycling/ garbage disposal people and they said that picture glass can not be recycled BUT I gave them samples/scraps of the Bainbridge Artcare matboard I use and it IS recyclable...light colors with newspapers etc, and dark colors with pressboard/cereal box materials. Check with your local people.
 
Before putting the chips down in a flower garden, you might consider mixing them up with some compost makings and letting them sit out for six months or so. This would cause some of the chemicals in the finishes to leach out before putting the chips on vegetation. All chips and sawdust should be weathered before putting on your flowers--they don't like all that acid either!
 
Commercial composting such as a city will do will reach a higher temp and most likely will never make into a garden.

Even in the 60 when we thought we were using glass that could be reused, they glass crushers wouldn't take it. I'm not sure if it was a chemical thing or a temper, I just remember thinking it was a waste.

Now with all the coatings and UV blocks and such mixed in, they are considered almost toxic. Even a beginning "slumper" won't take more than a handful of pieces off our hands.
 
Since we are all conscientious recyclers and environmentalists, I hope you all are recycling your aluminum cut-offs and discontinued samples.

I had been accumulating them for a very long time when I took them into a local recycling facility and came home with about $60 of "free" money.

That made me feel extra conscientious.

I had been hauling scrap glass across town and dumping it in a recycling dumpster for quite a while before somebody pointed out that picture glass (aka window glass) is not recyclable at most facilities.

Fomecore is particularly nasty to get rid of. I usually take it home, dip it in chocolate and gift wrap it for friends.
 
Window glass is a bit different in chemical composition than bottle glass. The melting range of window glass is a bit higher and causes havoc when it gets into the recycling stream. It causes new bottles the have defects and cracks.

Chocolate covered foam core? Kinda like a wafer cookie. Hmm… might try that.
John
 
We burn them in our fireplace; either don't inhale for a couple of days or be sure that you have a good well drafted flu. We are as normal as anyone else in the institution.

Jack Cee
 
Health issues be darned!

I use the stuff for kindling. It burns very hot … and the colors … oooo, purdy colors.

The headaches usually go away after a few days. The blurred vision may take a little longer.
 
We are 'fortunate' here in Cleveland, we have an asphalt plant.
Asphalt plants DO take picture glass, they just grind it up and mix it in, I guess.
We take ours there about once a month or so and have the added bonus of being able to gaze upon the shimmering green mountains of... glass.
Chopper droppings we just toss, I figured that they'd compost there. I have enough compost at home.
We also take cardboard, newspaper, mat board, cans and bottles to a local recycler.

edie the onebagoftrashaweek goddess
 
Schools and the like may also be able to use shavings and dropouts in their furnace's.
 
We are lucky to have a huge dumpster for cardboard recycling behind our shop. They pick up once a week & we can put cardboard, boxes, matboard, and packing paper/kraft paper in there. Larger scraps of matboard & foam core scraps I give to a lady who teaches kids' art classes.
 
We give all our mat scraps and foam board to the boys and girls club and to several schools in the area. They are extremely greatful, as the art budgets in schools seem to always be the ones that get cut. I haven't heard of any asphalt plants here, but I certainly will look into that.
 
Thanks everyone!
I have since learned that the chemicals in the frames (formaldehyde, various other poisons) would be bad bad bad for the soil too.. so now I'm on a quest to see if a local lumber yard will take them and chew them up and mix it with other poisonous stuff and use make some other kind of fiber board or something. that's some form of recycling right? I will let everyone know what i find out!
We are lucky with all other materials (besides glass, another bone of contention), we have a dumpster around the corner that picks up EVERYTHING in one bin! Yay! We still get the morons who put huge boxes in there without breaking them down, which is a nice reminder that life isn't perfect..
I like the chocolate covered foam board as gifts.. my friends love chocolate!!!
 
dont worry about the organic/dissapeareble wood stuff----worry about all those pieces of non-ferrous metal youre throwing away or that leaded glass your passing on!!!!!!! I've been hearing it's becoming harder to get trash companies to accept scrap glass because it lasts FOREVER and pollutes the ground with the lead(excuse me but didnt all that lead live IN the ground before some gready capitolist pig went & dug it out?????)...so far we dont have that crap here(I keep waiting for that other shoe to hit the floor)...just what will "we" do when no one accepts glass scrap????? a major concern to more than just our little piece of the economy
 
Sounds like we all will be paying to ship our glass scraps to various asphalt plants to mix it into their batchs?
I wish all the greedy capitalist pigs would have to deal with it for us all. Wouldn't that be the definition of justice? They took it out and got rich, now deal with it!! Seems like a good idea to me!
 
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