Chickens step up to recycle

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Monday, 19 July 2010 00:00

A TDA project to trial the use of waste timber as chicken bedding is nearing completion. The results of the trial will shortly be incorporated into an appropriate industry specification.

The project commissioned 180 cubic metres of waste timber bedding from a recycler in south-west Sydney. The bedding is being trialled, with so far positive results, by chicken growers in Peats Ridge and Raymond Terrace.

The trial indicates that waste timber bedding may successfully replace or extend bedding based on hardwood sawdust and softwood shavings. Growers were enthusiastic about this, as such bedding is sometimes difficult to obtain.

Projects like this that develop markets for timber industry waste are needed to keep timber waste disposal costs low. Recent dramatic rises in waste disposal costs have added urgency to this need: Queensland is the latest state to introduce a waste disposal levy of $35 per tonne. The problem is likely to become more acute as disposal levies rise to over $120 per tonne by 2014 in most urban and in many regional areas of NSW.

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