This material idea is plywood and OSB (oriented strand board) that are made of the typical wood products, but are bonded with an adhesive that is not toxic when burned. This would allow people to use the scraps from construction for heating their homes or as camping firewood without the worry of toxic fumes. This idea would reduce the amount of debris going to landfills.
In addition, these materials could be manufactured using a percentage of hardwood such as trimmings from apple trees. You would want to scrounge for the hardwood containing material when you are planning to pit roast a pig.-- Salted Nuts, Apr 19 2004 Are there any waterproof adhesives that aren't toxic or, more to the point, aren't toxic when burned?-- bristolz, Apr 19 2004 toxicity of burning plywood is overstated, while the toxicity of burning ordinary wood is greatly undertated- ask anyone with asthma to spend some time in a wood fueled home...-- xylene, Apr 20 2004 I think the real danger of burning plywood and OSB as a heating fuel is the extremely high temperatures produced by the combustion of the bonding agents and the attendant risk of chimney fires.-- bristolz, Apr 20 2004 MDF has serious health issues with just being machined, not burnt. It has a formaldehide based glue, and machining the stuff creates clouds of toxic dust. I assume the glues in ply and OSB are similar. [+]-- BunsenHoneydew, Jul 20 2006 //the plies are bonded under heat and pressure with strong adhesives, usually phenol formaldehyde resin// (Wikipedia). Animal (eg hide; but not very waterproof) or casein glues would do. Cellulose nitrate is waterproof and would burn nicely, with low toxicity. (Try burning a ping-pong ball).-- spidermother, Jul 22 2006 how'bout a bonding agent that can be dissolved so you can reuse the strands ? Send your scraps back to the factory where they reuse what they can and turn the remnants into pellets.-- FlyingToaster, Feb 23 2010 In the eighties, the mill that I work at built a pilot plant to extract resin from pine bark to use in the plywood plant onsite. It worked fine but made a very dark ply. It was an economic failure because builders complained it warped in the sunlight before they put the rooves on (doesn't snow here). Oh and most houses here are wood fuelled.-- sneakythumbs, Feb 25 2010 Rooves / roofs. I spent a while last night trying to decide which one to use. I settled on roofs, but I suspect rooves may be the real word.-- wagster, Feb 25 2010 Rooves. As with knives, loaves, hooves. Old plural form, now in decline. Should be used, though: no ives or buts.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 25 2010 No they don't.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 25 2010 Its octopodes but yeah-- sneakythumbs, Feb 26 2010 random, halfbakery