[Greenbuilding] Wood by the pound.

[Reuben Deumling]

On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 6:52 AM, Norbert Senf <mheat at mha-net.org> wrote:

> At 01:49 PM 12/22/2010 -0800, Reuben Deumling wrote:
>
>> I found this and don't think it is likely a very good statistic, but it
>> got me thinking.
>> <http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html>
>> http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html
>>
>> "The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat
>> 50,000,000 homes for 20 years."
>>
>> We have roughly twice that many households in the US which would suggest
>> we have available 10x the required amount of fuel to heat the present
>> housing stock. Hm. Seems doubtful. Anyone?
>>
>
> Assume an average home would take 2 cords of hardwood to heat per winter or
> 6,000 lb.
> Multiply by 50,000,000 and by 20, and you get 6 trillion pounds, or 10 tons
> of wood per American.
>
> They state that an American uses 680 lbs of paper per year or about 1/30th
> of 10 tons.
> Add in the waste wood that is landfilled, and you'd have enough to heat the
> 50,000,000 the houses for at least one year.

Thanks for re-running those calculations, Norbert. Based on my experience I
think the average household at present insulation levels at least around
here would probably take closer to 5 cords, but that is just a guess.

> The carbon would end up back in the atmosphere either way.
>
True, but I'd add two qualifications.
(1) the carbon in the wood would be released much more quickly if it were
burned as firewood than put in the landfill, but
(2) it is only reasonable to assume that if burned, it would be offsetting
an amount of fossil carbon presently used to heat all these houses that has
very different implications for climate change.
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