Hello Pete,
We're a value-add manufacturer that specializes in niche and custom manufactured packaging solutions. We don't want to compete in commodity markets, say, turning the saw dust into camp fire starters. The wood and acrylic powders processing wastes we end up with do not currently fit our value added model and we are 99%+ a business to business operation. We do have some products in R&D we can incorporate the waste stream into, but these are a ways out from production yet.
My goal in the short term is to reduce our discard and create secondary uses for the left overs. There is a cash recovery issue, in that we need to decrease the cost of management of these items, but at this time we're not working on developing a marketable product. Ideally, I'd be looking at shipping 10lb bags to people with a T&M fee for processing/shipping/handling, in bulk, unfiltered, etc. The acrylic powders would be a hodgepodge blend of whatever we made that week.
I've got some ideas for value added products that would fit better in a single consumer model (think ordering wood flour by the quart vs 10 lb bag)... for these we would look at designing the product, then licensing it to a retail distribution partner and we'd maintain the manufacturing.
We're geared for shipping pallets, but can stick someone on filling 10lb bags.
Hope this makes sense.
Thanks!
Rob