An old friend who worked at a plywood plant said nothing went to waste. The veneers made plywood, the chips made strand board, the sawdust made particle board and they even recorded the noise and sold it as rock and roll.I was a hot press operator at a plywood mill back in the 1980s. Much more hand work then. The glue was applied by a four person crew, one person feeding 4' core pieces through the glue spreader, one person catching them and laying them out and two flipping backs, centers and faces onto the glued core pieces. Our mill did 24 panel loads. The stack of panels came to me via conveyor which fed into an hydraulic pre-press that compressed the sheets just enough so I could handle them. Then the panels went on a vertical ride with me to the top of the hot press. There I fed them one at a time between plattens. When the press was full and I was back on the ground, I'd close the press, wait 4-6 minutes and do it all over again. From the hot press the panels went on to the trim saws and sanders. Lots of hard, physical work, but very rewarding - you'd made something that would be used all over the world.