INDUSTRY: The Cinderella Trees

In Camas, Wash. last week, Crown Zellerbach Corp.’s Executive Vice President Harold L. Zellerbach picked up a gold-painted shovel and patted rain-soaked earth around the base of a newly-planted western hemlock. With this symbolic gesture, he dedicated the company’s new three-story $600,000 central research laboratory building. Said Zellerbach: “Three decades ago, the western hemlock was considered little more than a forest weed.

Then research scientists and wood technicians unlocked some of its secrets, and the western hemlock emerged as a Cinderella tree. It has become one of the finest sources of fibers for papermaking.”

Crown Zellerbach. which hopes that research done in its new lab will turn up more Cinderellas in the forest, is not the only company trying to find new products from the more than 50% of a tree now wasted. Almost every month new products come out of the laboratories of lumber and paper companies. Among them:

¶ Dimethyl sulfide. once an evil-smelling waste left behind in kraft-papermaking, is being used to give an odor to natural gas, which otherwise could seep through a house without being detected. Scientists think they may also be able to use the chemical as a starting material for making a permanent antifreeze.

¶ Conidendrol, a compound that Crown Zellerbach gets from hemlock wastes, retards oxidation, is being tested for use in oils, foods, rubber and other substances.

¶ Plastinail, a flooring compound that Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. processes out of Douglas fir bark, flows like cement, then hardens, can be nailed like wood.

¶ Silvaloy, a wood waste product originated by Weyerhaeuser, can be blown into almost any shape, is being used to make children’s furniture, bowling pins, toilet seats.