In a 6-month composting study, sawdust from machined softwood plywood bonded with phenol-formaldehyde resin was amended with chicken manure, cow manure, horse manure, cotton gin trash, and inorganic fertilizer. The sawdust and amendments were placed in eighteen 75-liter plastic cans. Moisture was provided through atmospheric precipitation, and the substrate was aerated once or twice per week, depending on the amount of rainfall. Samples were collected at 30-day intervals and analyzed for toxicity and pH. On day 180, the compost cans were weighed and sampled to determine the decrease in dry weight. All treatments showed a significant decrease in toxicity by day 180, and maintained a neutral pH throughout the study with the exception of the horse manure treatment. All treatments showed a reduction in weight. Amended treatments had almost double the percentage of weight loss compared to the unamended control. The composted sawdust was also evaluated in a greenhouse study to determine its effect on the growth of row crop plants. Twenty-five percent of the composted sawdust by weight was mixed with potting soil, in which corn, soybean, and cotton seeds were planted. The pots were watered daily and allowed to grow for 55 days. The chicken manure treatment showed no significant difference in mean dry weight of the plants compared to potting soil. Other treatments were comparable to chicken manure, except gin trash, which showed a significantly lower dry weight for plants compared to the chicken manure and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]