Where our waste goes

When you throw something away it just goes someplace else.

Our shop produces a fair amount of scrap. We only use sustainably harvested or recycled materials and water-based finishes. The CNC process we use optimizes materials a great deal. Some of our scrap even winds up in the work of local artists. However, we still wind up with quite a lot that has to be tossed, and that means something is getting wasted, if only energy.

Or is it? Instead of just throwing our waste into the dump, or worse just burning it all, we drop it off at the green waste processing center for Alameda County!

While it sure doesn't look pretty, the end result is pretty neat. First off, a lot of the wood waste is used to make biomass fuels.

What doesn't make good fuel gets made instead into mulch for gardens and landscaping. Which they sell cheap and give away to cities for projects.

What doesn't work for fuel or landscaping winds up in a giant compost for organic materials out in central California.

While it's not as neat as building a downdraft gasifier and then running a generator from that to power the shop, it's a lot better than it all just going to dead landfill.

So while reusing something is better than buying new, you should feel guilt-free in your purchase of heirloom quality furniture from our store. For what little waste we do produce is dealt with as responsibly as we're able to do currently, and we're always looking to do better!