That depends entirely on the size and shape of the log. Lumber mills don't want thin and twisted logs.

It seems safe to assume they aren't burning valuable logs just to be cartoon villains.

The economics of sawmilling are absolutely brutal, and everything is done for profit maximization on every tree harvested. Sometimes perverse incentives will drive things like eg the price of 7' studs surges so all the 14' 2x4 or 2x6s are cut in two, or in an extreme example if the price of chips surges enough then maybe perfectly good lumber would be chipped instead of sold as lumber (this happened briefly in the 80s if I recall correctly)

To go over how from seedling to end product every single part of the usable tree is used to maximum economic advantage would take more time than I have available, but suffice it to say that in Canadian lumber, plywood, osb and paper there is as close to zero waste as is humanly possible.

Also, as a footnote, there is a lot more thought given to future harvests, environmental concerns (carbon capture, riparian areas etc) and social license (work with first nations, community involvement, worker safety) than the average person would believe.

> It seems safe to assume they aren't burning valuable logs just to be cartoon villains.

Perhaps are they chopping down more wood than would be normally chopped because they are being paid above market rates for it and thus is becomes profitable to do so

If they're burning trees that could have been valuable lumber instead, then they're burning money for no reason. Probably they aren't doing that.

If you scroll down, way past when most people give up reading, you’ll find that apparently 11% of the logs from that area is unusable for production lumber, ie. are a waste.

First "Drax said it did not use the logs from the two sites Panorama identified."

Then "Drax later admitted that it did use logs from the forest to make wood pellets"

Which time were they lying?

Then there was the bit where Drax said it transferred the logging licences to other companies, despite the evidence showing they didn't

I don’t even know what Drax said, exactly, because the journalists won’t bother to quote it, so I’m not going to opine on whether they lied.