Is there a way to make a 2009 MacBook (A1342) boot from USB?
Any Intel Mac should be able to boot from USB. So the possibilities are:

that this particular Mac can't boot at all
that the USB disk is not configured correctly.
that the USB port is damaged.

Make sure that the USB drive uses the GUID partition map (not Apple Partition Map, nor Master Boot Record).
Make sure the OS on the boot disk is an OS that supports that hardware: - macOS 10.6.1 (Snow Leopard) to 10.13.6 (High Sierra).