How to repurpose sawdust

Sawdust is a by-product of wood cutting – with a hand saw, chainsaw, table saw or similar – and various carpentry or woodworking processes, such as planing, sanding and turning. Depending on the tool and the wood species, sawdust varies in appearance and consistency, from the curls of wood that you get with a hand plane, to the very fine sawdust generated by a sander. In the case of a chainsaw, the quality of sawdust indicates the sharpness of the chain.

Depending on how waste collection is managed in your area, you can either throw sawdust into the organic waste bin, assuming you have a small amount of it, or otherwise take it to a recycling centre. But what if you reused it instead of throwing it away? Today we will see exactly how you can repurpose and reuse this waste wood both around the home and in the garden and vegetable patch.

How to use sawdust in the home

Sawdust is wood waste that offers you an economical and handy solution in various household situations. You can use it to mop up and absorb liquids, such as a water leak or stain on the floor, oil spilled from your car or lubricant dripped while maintaining your gardening tools. Once the surface is cleaned, you can generally discard the oil-soaked sawdust in your general household waste bin: if in doubt, check with your local waste management authority.

In the winter, when subzero temperatures cause outdoor paving slabs to freeze over, you can sprinkle wood sawdust onto them to provide better traction for soles and tyre treads and thereby prevent slipping. You can do the same at access points where the snow compacts into an icy sheet. Sawdust is an alternative to de-icing salt that also won't damage the lawn and plants around driveways and paths.

By mixing candle wax or paraffin with well-dried sawdust – preferably from soft wood such as fir or pine – you can make your own tinder to light a fire in a stove, fireplace or barbecue. Besides tinder, to properly ignite your fireplace or stove we recommend using the top-down lighting technique.

Speaking of which, you can add a small percentage of sawdust to a pellet mill to produce your own pellets. The main material you will need to obtain good quality pellets is wood waste from pruning: in this regard, here you will find all the information you need for making pellets at home. Being a traditional fuel, wood and its waste products form the basis of our tips for heating the home without gas.

You can use sawdust as pet litter or bedding and later dispose of it in your home compost bin. Sawdust is also suitable as litter for small farmyard animals such as rabbits and chickens – which you can keep in a do-it-yourself henhouse – as well as for larger species, including horses, cattle and so on. Thanks to the absorbent capacity of sawdust, it creates a dry litter that ensures animals’ wellbeing and a comfortable, healthy living environment.

Very fine wood sawdust is a resource for your DIY projects: once sieved it makes a good raw material in various formulations. For example, by mixing it with flour, vinyl glue and a little water you get modelling clay for creating small decorative wood-effect objects that you can also paint. Do you have an item of furniture, a frame or other wooden artifact that could do with refurbishing? Using similar ingredients as that for the modelling clay, you can obtain do-it-yourself filler to plug cracks and woodworm holes and reconstruct missing parts. If you are comfortable using epoxy resin, you can experiment with the aesthetic effect of sawdust by incorporating it into furnishing accessories, household objects, costume jewellery and many other creations.

The prerequisite for safely using sawdust is that it should be uncontaminated, that is to say, free from paints, glues or binding agents. It should therefore come from cutting unprocessed wood, rather than wood derivatives such as chipboard. The sawdust you produce by cutting with a chainsaw or telescopic pruner may be contaminated with lubricating oil from the guide bar and chain. Furthermore, sawdust should be used dry, not fresh: so let it dry out first, taking care not to pile it up, but instead spreading it over a large surface and turning it occasionally so that it doesn’t go mouldy or decompose.

The finest part of sawdust (wood dust) disperses easily in the air and can cause irritation and respiratory problems if inhaled (sawdust from hardwoods is particularly dangerous). When using sawdust, wear a face mask and protective spectacles, especially if you are working for an extended period and in an enclosed space. Sawdust is also flammable, so store and use it in well-ventilated areas, away from heat sources, sparks or open flames. Also keep it away from moisture and rain.

How to use sawdust in the garden and vegetable patch

Using wood waste – sawdust, bark and shredded pruning debris – you can make mulch for spreading over the garden and vegetable patch, to protect the soil from heat and cold, conserve its moisture and prevent it from becoming compacted. At the same time, these natural materials enrich the earth with organic matter. Bear in mind that waste from conifers (fir, pine, etc.) tends to acidify soil, which can be good if you have acid-loving plants. In addition, fresh sawdust and bark can remove nitrogen from soil as they decompose: to avoid this happening, you can mix them with straw or use them after they have already started decomposing. Learn more about this practice in our focus article on how and when to mulch.

In addition, with sawdust you can keep slugs away from the vegetable patch, flower beds and individual plants: here is an article that lists various natural methods for keeping snails at bay.

In seedbeds you can incorporate wood sawdust – as well as bark – into the substrate to help seedlings grow. You should only use it after composting it: to obtain a good seedbed, mix it with the soil to make the latter more porous and improve its water-holding capacity.

Finally, if you have a compost bin in your garden, adding sawdust to it will help to balance out all the wet food waste, thereby enhancing the quality of the compost that you fertilise your plants with. If you don't yet have one, here are instructions for building a homemade compost bin.

Still on the subject of sawdust, we conclude with a recommendation. At the start of this article we said that the sawdust produced by a chainsaw or pruner provides a clue as to the sharpness of the chain: when you see powdery sawdust rather than chips, it's time to sharpen the chain.

Once the cutting work is finished, let the engine cool down and clean the chainsaw of sawdust, dust and dirt. Focus particularly on clearing the cooling air intakes, which must be kept free of foreign matter so that the engine doesn’t overheat: here is a summary of the steps to follow for chainsaw maintenance (of course, they also apply to pruners). Maintenance is the key to having efficient and long-lasting tools, as well as working safely and with less effort.