One of the problems many forest-products industries in the district have to deal with is the matter of waste disposal. What do you do with the tons and tons of chips, scraps, and ends left over after cutting and finishing logs?
If your business is hardwood, you can sell your chips to local pulp mills, but what if your product is cedar? Because it is so light, cedar doesn’t even make decent firewood—and who needs six acres of kindling?
That was the question facing Norman Burkholder of Mine Centre ever since he started his cedar products business in 1996.
Norlaine Forest Products manufactures posts and guardrails as well as finished goods such as log siding, flooring, and custom planing. It also is the primary supplier of fence posts and guard rails to the Ministry of Transportation for Northwestern Ontario.
Over the past three years, it has sold more than 25,000 cedar posts to the MTO.
Of course, all that production means a lot of scrap and peelings. Until recently, all Burkholder could do with this waste is burn it when the wind and weather permitted.
But it seemed a shame to see all that material go up in smoke (literally), so he constantly was looking for an alternative.
“In 1998, Dad had his dream of getting this all mulched up,” noted Burkholder’s son, Ewan. “He had just been burning it, so he made a business plan and talked to the MNR about it.”
Earlier this year, he found a solution.
While on a trip to Minneapolis, Burkholder came across a landscaping business that had huge piles of what looked like cedar mulch on site. Upon closer examination, he discovered that’s exactly what it was.
Sylva Inc. has been in the business of supplying mulch in bulk to landscapers since 1999. According to sales rep Alan Miller, cedar is an ideal mulching material for a number of reasons.
“It’s extremely resistant to rot and will stay in place for a long time,” Miller said yesterday from his office in Minneapolis. “It’s light in weight and plentiful, so it’s easy to find.”
It also has a pleasant, spicy smell which lasts a long time. In fact, cedar shavings make up the bulk of commercial bedding material for hamsters and guinea pigs.
But getting all that scrap lumber down to Minneapolis and having it ground into mulch posed an expensive problem. The solution, as it turned out, was simple—do it right in Mine Centre.
Sylva uses a huge machine called a Rotochopper, which looks somewhat like a cross between a combine harvester and the kind of tree chipper commonly used by Public Works personnel in any town.
Except it’s big. Really big. “There’s no other machine like this in the country,” said Burkholder.
The Rotochopper is manufactured by Peltz Manufacturing in St. Martin, Mn. It is the only product the company makes and it works. It’s also mobile—and that’s where the partnership began.
Burkholder arranged with Sylva to lease the Rotochopper with an option to buy. It arrived April 19 and went straight to work.
And the results have been most satisfactory so far. Apart from half-a-day of downtime caused by a broken belt, the machine has performed flawlessly.
In fact, Burkholder said he’s contemplating purchasing the Rotochopper outright if it makes financial sense. After this season, he’ll sit down and crunch the numbers.
The Rotochopper doesn’t come cheap, however. Miller said a new unit retails for about $300,000 (U.S.), although a used one might be an option.
In the meantime, the machine gradually is reducing a yardful of scrap wood and peelings to a useful, environmentally-friendly product.
Miller said any way you cut it, it’s a good deal for all concerned. Burkholder operates the Rotochopper and stores the mulch in huge piles. Sylva is buying the mulch and applying it to the lease costs.
Sylva even will be sending its own trucks up to pick it up, starting next week.
“It’s a very good win-win situation,” Miller enthused “He’s trying to take care of a waste product and we’re trying to make use of it. All they have to do is keep feeding the machine.”
The machine does have a prodigious appetite. Ewan Burkholder said by the end of the summer, it will have mulched up more than 10,000 cubic yards—enough to fill 100 tractor-trailers.
But it also is a thirsty beast. Burkholder said it burns up to 120 gallons of diesel fuel every day. Nonetheless, he’s convinced it will be at least a break-even venture.
“I’ll come out a little bit ahead,” he predicted. “It won’t be big money; it’s similar to selling chips to the pulp mills.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
