[Greenbuilding] Plybooboo

[Chris Green]

Rob Tom wrote:
> And I'd look at setting it up as an operation that would be used to  
> provide employment for mid-to-high-level-functioning  
> developmentally-challenged adults in the shop and street people for the  
> outdoor harvesting/gathering/warehousing operations.
>   

In the late '80's and early '90's  there was just such a company doing 
this in New York City. They diverted a lot of board feet/ year from the 
landfill sites. The reclaimed wood was made into patchwork-looking 
panels which were then used to make furniture. There was an article 
about the company in a woodworking newspaper I used to get every month 
at that time. I don't know if the company still operates, but I probably 
still have the article somewhere and can look for it if anyone's 
interested.
> I can see the possibility of municipal govts or service orgs being  
> involved initially to help get the operations off the ground but given the  
> increasing Green awareness that is afoot these days, the Green cachet of  
> pallet flooring would likely have a great appeal to urban loft-dwellers  
> and the operations could quite likely become self-sustaining in short  
> order. And that should be enough.
Right.
So here's a heads' up for anyone interested: Almost all the pallets used 
to ship stuff to Yellowknife, in the NWT, winds up being burned at their 
garbage dump. Nearly 100%. It costs too much to haul the pallets back to 
Edmonton or wherever...
My nephew worked out of Yellowknife one year, installing cell phone 
towers and satellite internet  stations in small communities all over 
the north: when he came home he told me about this unpalatable waste of 
perfectly good wood.

I did think about setting just this type of operation up at one time. I 
didn't, obviously, and don't know exactly how large a volume of pallets 
one could expect to find there, but Yellowknife is the main gateway to 
everything in Canada's attic, so unless they've come up with some use 
for  since Jason helped wire the place, there should be a large-ish 
annual volume coming in from down south that is available to work with.
As a bonus, almost all the working folks in that city make a lot of money...

The same pallet problem is probably true for the communities of Thompson 
and Churchill, in Manitoba.
>  It need not be a hefty bottom line  
> enterprise making millionaires out of everyone involved.
>
> But I do think it is important to keep it small so that a prototype  
> operation is easily repeatable in urban centres all over the continent.
>   
The students taking automation technology training at TRU in Kamloops 
can design and build such a machine or system. I forget the exact name 
of the course program, but I do now they did design and build 
specialized machines for some industries in the past-- sawmills among 
them--, and probably at cost. Other colleges and universities probably 
can do this as well.

And of course, there is also the opportunity to house the operation 
inside a genuine straw bale industrial building...which one would have 
to build.

Umm, where is the northernmost known SB building in Canada? Alaska? 
Sweden or Norway? Russia?

Cheers,

Chris Green.