Repurposed - Dunnage from Work

February 4, 2012 -

I work at Bull Moose Tube company in Trenton, GA as the plant engineer. I am shocked sometimes at what we throw away in an industrial setting that I know we can use for something else. Last year, I re-purposed some divider boards for OSB blocks we use in storage to make 2 beds that were 42" square. These are the beds that currently are home to our garlic and tulips. They have performed better than I had expected and have really impressed me.

With the garden pushing for more expansion this year, I happened upon another item that my boss allowed me to re-purpose for the expansion beds I am in the process of building. The dunnage that is returned from Husqvarna for us to reuse also includes dunnage from some of their other suppliers. We typically throw this away and keep ours. I noticed that there were several 2x4 boards that came back that we throw away. This bothered me and I decided to see what I could design to reuse these.

One of the sizes that comes back is 24" 2x4 boards. With a little bit of sketching, I came up with a 4'x4' bed that I could use to build out my garden. When the operators sort these, they hold out the 24" lumber for me. I take it home and expand my garden with a little bit of nailing. So far, I have created 3 of these to expand in. They seem sturdy and when they finally do rot away. I can just build another one as long as we continue to sell product to Husqvarna.