Cottonwood

Albuquerque's Roosevelt Park

In the city, we plant trees for the benefits they give us while they're alive. They're lovely, they contribute positively to so many aspects of physical and mental health, and they give us shade and improved air quality. Visit Vibrant Cities Lab if you're interested in the science of how great trees are. That is the “consumer” use of planted trees in the urban environment. When those trees are cut down, they become post-consumer material. They will be waste material, unless someone intervenes to process them into something useful. If they are processed into useful wood products, they become post-consumer recycled material.

When you use recycled wood, you're contributing to the long term health and well-being of our hometown. Buying local contributes to the economy here in New Mexico, instead of sending money out of state or out of country. By using this wood in woodworking, you're keeping the CO2 locked up for longer, instead of releasing the CO2 into the environment, as with wood fires and mulch / compost. You're reducing the solid waste load at our landfills, which is a lessening of the municipal tax burden.

Maybe the best thing of all, the trees that make urban wood have stories. This tree was someone's backyard shade. This tree held the best bird feeder in town, for decades. This tree was planted after a birth, or a death, or a marriage. This tree has given us countless fruit pies. This tree watched over us as long as we can remember.

When you buy wood from Cut & Dry, you are preserving a little piece of Albuquerque's heart.