The new equipment has been introduced at Acorn’s wood recycling workshop, which provides training and employment for people with a disability or long-term health condition.
Work to ‘upcycle’ wood into furniture or gifts generates an estimated 12 tonnes of sawdust a year, which will now be made into briquettes which can be sold and used as an alternative to fossil fuels.
The wood burner has been used to keep staff at the Woodshack warm during the cold weather, utilising offcuts that would otherwise have been thrown away.
John Hill, Woodshack manager, said: ‘We aim to recycle as much timber and waste wood as possible, usually around 150 tonnes a year.
‘Working with that amount of wood naturally produces a large amount of waste and previously we had to bag it up and drive down to La Collette ourselves.’
The cost of the new equipment has been met by support from EMR Jersey and the Channel Islands Co-op Eco Fund.
