WOOD-WASTE PROCESSING

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1945, Page 3

WOOD-WASTE PROCESSING

IMPRApTICAL ON THE COAST. That conditions.-in Westland were not suitable for any extensive manufacture of wood-waste products was the opinion expressed by Mr. N. S. Dolamore, last evening, at a meeting held at Greymouth under the auspices of the Westland Progress League. Mr. F. A. Kitchingham, who presided, introduced Mr. Dolamore, who, he said, as a representative of the State Forest v Service, had recently made a toiir of milling communities in North America and Sweden. It was directly due to representations by the Westland Progress League to the Minister of Forestry, Mr. Skinner, that Mr. Dolamore investigated conditions in the vzood-waste industries of the countries he visited. He had, said Mr. Dolamore, visited a large factory in Springfield, Oregon, which produced alcohol from waste wood. This plant would cost about £1,100,000 in New Zealand. Small plants were considered uneconomic, an input of approximately 40,000 tons per annum being necessary to give satisfactory returns. Sweden, continued the speaker, was a forester’s paradise, every portion of timber being used. Waste and crooked wood was used for manufacturing charcoal, slabs went to wood distillation plants, tree-stumps were cut up and used in the same way, while sawdust was used for boilers and industrial heating. However, both in the United States and Sweden, the use of all waste products was forced upon the milling industry by war conditions and shortage of normal supplies, and it was not considered an economic practice in peace-time. “If this is the position in Sweden, where labour is cheap, the industry, well-established, and timber easily | transported, can plants be economical or practicable in Westland?” asked Mr. Dolamore. “In my opinion there is no justification for expenditure, I shall not say investment, of any Government or private capital on such a project.” He further stated that there is in Westland no one place where sufficient waste wood is available to establish a distilling plant or a sulphite factory. Charcoal could be manufactured but the demand is not sufficiently great to warrant such a project. Mr. Dolamore regretted that he could not be more optimistic, but had given what he considered to be the true fcicts. In the absence of Mr. W. D. Taylor, President of the League, Mr. J. M. Bunt moved a vote of thanks to the speaker for his informative address. .