I have, for many years now, constructed cabinets, mostly for kitchens, using 3/4" hardwood plywood. This plywood and various other 'sheet goods' such as medium density fiberboard and particle board which come primarily in 4' x 8' sheets have been the standard approach to kitchen cabinetry during my lifetime and at least back to the years post WWII. My understanding is that the standard cabinet depths we have become accustomed to were established in order to make efficient use of those 4x8 sheet goods in rebuilding Europe after the war. So, 2' for base cabinets 1' for uppers and that 4' is divided quite nicely with little waste. The division of the 8' length is a bit trickier but 30" tall cabinets get you close to the 96" in length. SO a 30" base cabinet with a 4 1/2" base (recessed to form a space for toes) and a 1 1/2" counter give us our standard 36" kitchen counter height. These 'standard' dimensions work, though they are not necessarily ideal or best for all tasks and storage issues.
So, for those with the means - custom cabinetry - provided by joiners, like me, allowed for variation to suit different heights, tastes and kitchen spaces. Of course, we have constructed all of those custom sized cabinets with those same 4' x 8' sheets, which do not adapt efficiently to many other sizes. If one cuts a 4' sheet at 25" instead of 24" one is left with a piece that is less than 23" or less than is needed for the 'standard' cabinet depth. That piece could be cut again at the standard 12" for an upper cabinet - leaving 11". I have personally cut these pieces to 4 1/2" to form bases for cabinets but two of these from 11" leaves one with 2" and a kitchen does not require many of these 4 1/2" pieces.
One of the touted benefits of plywood is that it decreases waste since most of the plies are peeled of off a log like you peel paper towels off of a roll. So, in the manufacture this is very efficient and hence profitable. However, as I hope you can see, there is a tremendous amount of waste in the end use if one strays from the 'standard' cabinet sizes. There are nifty computer programs which will lay out parts on a sheet to minimize waste but even then, I find there is a great deal of waste generated from a single set of kitchen cabinets.
But it is not just the amount of waste that is at issue but the quality of the waste. I can find uses for solid wood pieces often as small as 2" wide but have no use for a piece of plywood that size. If nothing else my smallest pieces of solid wood scrap can end up in my neighbors' wood stoves as kindling and the sawdust is great for compost. But between the plies in plywood are mysterious bonding agents which are known to be toxic. Here in Vermont, I believe it is illegal to burn plywood and you wouldn't want to inhale the combustion products from your woodstove - so it must end up in the landfill alongside the plastics and other unnatural products.
There may be more waste in the production of solid wood boards from a tree trunk than in the production of plywood, but that waste is not only non-toxic it is useful in many ways. Hence my quest to reduce the use of plywood in my cabinetry.
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