ORGANICS RECYCLING
THE CASE FOR A SUSTAINABLE WASTE WOOD RECYCLING INDUSTRY ACROSS CANADA BY MATT BRADFORD
C
anada is primed to turn a corner on wood waste recycling. By doing so, it can make a positive and sustainable impact that benefits all waste wood producers and wood recycling facilitators. It’s an ambitious vision. According to Jim Donaldson, founder and CEO of the Canadian Wood Waste Recycling Business Group, it requires collaborative action from all levels of government in the form of effective policies and support. “The bottom line is that all post-consumer waste wood is a hundred percent recyclable,” he says. “Anything we can do to encourage and enable waste wood recycling brings positive economic, social and environmental outcomes.” The challenge, however, is that while players in the Canadian wood sector may be on board with finding new applications for their waste, for the most part they lack the means and financial incentives. Donaldson says regions like Metro-Vancouver, B.C., have implemented measures such as prohibitions on wood waste burning or landfilling to push the industry to wood waste recycling. However, other provinces still have a long way to go. “I would estimate that less than 18 percent of manufactured, post-consumer C&D (Construction and Demolition) wood waste is recycled in Ontario, which is a huge missed opportunity,” he says, adding that this is in spite of the fact that there’s no shortage of alternatives to landfilling wood waste. Three main reuse channels for wood waste include: Re-processing: The process of grinding, shredding, chipping, hammer-milling and/or screening used end-of-life wood into a reusable product format for sale into developing reuse markets. Currently, potential reuse markets include road or trail base,
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landfill cover, animal bedding, water conservation material, composting and many more. Remanufacturing: Using stationary or portable wood sawmill systems to remanufacture used or unwanted off-cuts, C&D wood waste, smaller mill-grade trees, bug-infested trees and other items destined for the landfill. Potential remanufactured wood product end markets include new building materials, furniture, flooring, roofing, beams and other construction products. Barn wood: Dismantling, collecting and repurposing barn wood material for retail applications such as building products, flooring, furniture and other consumer wood products. There is no one-size-fits-all national framework for wood recycling. Each jurisdiction has its own opportunities and reuse markets, as well as partners that must first be identified and engaged. For its part, the Canadian Wood Waste Recycling Business Group has numerous strategies and frameworks for establishing closed-loop recycling processes and is actively encouraging Canada’s federal, provincial and municipal governments to support the development of the Canadian wood recycling industry. “The process begins by going into a region and identifying how much wood waste is produced, how it can be repurposed, and who within the region can make it possible,” he explains. “At the end of the day, it’s a feasibility study that is needed first, with the ultimate goal of finding the most economic reuse market products for a given region, whether that’s animal bedding, construction materials or retail materials. Because there’s a reuse for everything, you just need to be willing to look and start the conversation.”
