EUGENE, Ore.— It was problem waste once, sawdust and wood chips burned in countless "wigwam" burners that belched sparks and smoke through their screened-over tops at lumber mills across the West.
Some of the rusting hulks remain, but they're cold now. The chips and sawdust they burned are in short supply, valuable byproducts used for fiberboard, to generate energy and more.
And competition for the former waste products is on the rise.
Random Lengths, a Eugene-based forest products trade publication, says owners of fiberboard plants face a shortage.
The plants, including seven in Oregon, produce fiberboard used for kitchen countertops, cupboards and ready-to-assemble furniture.
But the drive for renewable energy spurred by incentives from the Oregon Energy Trust, a nonprofit organization funded by power companies, is creating competition for the sawdust.
Some plants are burning the material to produce heat used in industrial processes and to make steam-generated electricity.
On the horizon are biorefineries that can turn plant fiber, including sawdust, into ethanol, fuel for cars and trucks.
Fiberboard mills already are feeling the supply pinch, said Pete Malliris, associate editor at Random Lengths.
"Earlier in the year, when the market was screaming (for fiberboard), you had some (fiberboard) mills who could not increase production. They wanted to add new shifts and hire more workers, but they were unable to do it because they couldn't get enough raw material," he said.