Other half and I create a lot of woodshavings, while we build bits and bobs. We now have two bin bags full of long shavings and sawdust. We used to just burn them, but don't feel right doing this if they could be used for something else. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could do with them? I've tried to freecycle them as I know a few people use them for bedding for some animals but haven't received any interest.
Where I work we just burn them. They do use shavings for animals, one place I worked sold them to a supplier of stable bedding. But you need soft wood shavings and no dust. Hardwood is said to be carcinogenic. It takes a long time to rot down if you were thinking of using it on the garden.
Layer them in with your leafmold & get a cheap mushroom kit from the poundshop, break the spawn up & dot it about the heap then just keep it moist. Even if you don't get a crop of mushrooms the mycelium will be breaking down the wood & leaves.
If there are no other uses for it, what's wrong with burning it? Burn it in chimenea on the patio as you sit out with a nice glass of red, or a tinny. Then the next morning, take the potash rich ashes out and scatter it on the flower beds.
If you have a woodburner how about making blocks (like the paper ones) and burning the blocks on the burner and recycle them!
When Mr. F'smum gets it into his head to turn trees into dining tables, chairs, davenports, secretaires, sideboards, chiffoniers and anything else people ask him to make, it produces a lot of shavings and sawdust. Oak sawdust is great because, with very little equipment you can use it for 'cold' smoking food at home (beech, apple and cherry can be used in the same way). The shavings (providing they're clean) we bag up and a card in the local newsagent's window, brings a whole host of rabbit, guinea pig, gerbil, et.al., owners to your door - Mr. F'smum uses black bin-bags for which he usually asks for a £1 to be dropped in the RNLI box we keep for the purpose.
We just burnt a load of oak shavings when the OH made our mantle. Had a very nice brandy smell to it I thought. Thanks for all the weird and wonderful suggestions once again from everyone
I just picked up two well established Raspberry canes from the local boot sale for £2 so I guess I will be using the ash on them. Nom Nom Nom
