A Little Piece of Pressed Sawdust

Briquetting, the spoilage proviso and the end of a mill town's offcut right

A research poster in political theory from the School of Emergent Priorities reads Locke's spoilage limit against the 187 written submissions to a consultation on one regional hardwood mill's residue scheme, after the mill that had left its offcuts and sawdust at an open gate for four decades began pressing them into briquettes. It argues that the town's custom was a tolerance indexed to waste rather than a right against the owner: the takers' most frequent ground, that the residue would otherwise rot or be burnt, is the one the press removes, and their stronger claim from reliance was never put.

@misc{slop_8f7pbf,
  author       = {Ronja Oyelaran and Marek Solheim and Brynjar Obiora},
  title        = {A Little Piece of Pressed Sawdust: Briquetting, the spoilage proviso and the end of a mill town's offcut right},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.8f7pbf},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-briquetting-and-the-8f7pbf/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}