Wood is becoming an increasingly important material, potentially helping buildings become a carbon sink and replacing non-renewable materials (1); however, the growing demand for wood may present a global supply challenge. Utilizing waste wood can enhance resource efficiency and mitigate climate change, although effective reuse and recycling requires significant efforts due to the presence of impurities in the waste wood. A key limiting factor preventing the reuse and recycling of wood is the lack of criteria to establish waste wood quality (2). While some criteria have been investigated, others, such as the dimensions of the recovered wood, the types of contamination, the ease with which they can be removed, as well as deviation from flatness, have not been considered, along with cracks and biological defects. Therefore, the aims of this study were to assess the extent to which the quality of waste wood is degraded after its first lifecycle, thereby providing consistent characterization of the quality of waste wood for reuse and recycling according to the above-mentioned criteria.
Keywords: Recovered wood, reuse, cascading
Authors
Bahareh Nasiri
Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems
Mark Hughes
Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems
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