Things to know about wood - from disposal to recycling
About the subjects: Waste wood | Fresh wood | Acceptance catalogue
Valuable raw material: Disposing of wood properly
In the stone age people used wood in a number of different ways. Today we use it primarily in the form of building wood, furniture, paper, cardboard or other wood products. In the European Union wood is, directly after crude oil, the second most important import.
The Germans use an average of 1.3 cubic meters of wood per year – consumer behavior that has consequences. Although wood is a renewable raw material, it could soon become scarce. Experts have calculated that between the 2016 and 2025 more wood will be used than can grow back in nature. Efficient recycling of waste and fresh wood is therefore of crucial importance for nature and climate protection.
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In Germany each inhabitant accrues annually roughly 95 kilos of waste wood. That is roughly eight million tons in total, of which approx. 7.3 million tons are delivered to recycling facilities. The largest part of the wood waste, roughly 2.,4 million tons, comes from the building sector. Wood from bulky waste plays another important role with roughly 1.5 million tons. Packaging wood accounts for 1 million tons. The rest is split up between industrial wood, wood from sorting of other waste or even wood remnants from the forest and landscaping.
There are basically two ways to get waste wood back into the economic cycle: the energetic and the material utilization. The energetic utilization generates heat and/or electricity by burning waste wood in biomass heat plants or biomass power plants. in the case of material utilization, waste wood is actually recycled as a material: generally in the timber industry for manufacturing chipboard or even as compressed wood moldings (compressed wood pallets).
The degree to which wood can be recycled depends on which chemicals it has been treated with and how much of those chemicals has been applied. The German waste wood ordinance therefore divides waste wood into four categories: untreated, glued, coated and treated wood. Waste wood from category I is natural and can be easily recycled. Waste wood from category IV is treated with wood preserver so that the recycling can only be done thermally in special approved biomass power plants. Therefore, in turn, fossil energy carriers such as coal, oil or gas are replaced.
According to a study in 2018 in Germany over 1.5 million tons of waste wood were recycled per year.
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Waste wood
No waste wood
Value 'fresh wood' for attribute 'anchor' in block 'Section Head' is invalid: No numbers allowed at the beginning, no whitespaces
The wood chips we collect are divided into two categories, on the one hand the timber mill wood chips and on the other hand the landscaping material (LPM wood chips).
The timber mill wood chips have the highest quality of the two. We collect them from regional timber mills and as such they can be separated cleanly according to the type of wood. Depending on the customer’s wish we offer deciduous or coniferous wood with or without bark. Because of consistent production processes, we can guarantee consistent wood chip quality.
We also offer LPM wood chips as a more favorably priced alternative. These are used for the care of trees and bushes on the roadside. They are produced by mobile chippers directly at the place they are needed. Depending on the customer’s wish we also offer different chip sizes.
Heating with wood and as such replacing fossil fuels such as oil, coal or gas has been gaining increasing importance for years for our climate and is preferred by the state for attaining conservation goals.
Our wood chips are used in communal buildings, for example in schools, swimming pools and hospitals, for process steam generation in industrial facilities and in small boilers for private customers.
Every firing technology and chopped wood supply is to a certain extent designed for a specific wood chip quality. The manufacturers of the facilities thus define a reference fuel. If the quality deviates too far from the reference fuel, there is a danger that there will be more malfunctions, more emissions and less efficient operation of the facility. To prevent this, the wood chips are prepared at our sites in Minden and Löhne with different sieve techniques and therefore can be adapted individually to the customer’s wishes.
To increase the heating value of the wood chip, we also have the possibility of drying the material to a residual moisture of under 10 %. This is done with the aid of special drying containers. These are set up at the biogas plants to effectively use the heat of the thermal power stations installed there.
In addition to the wood chips, more by-products are accrued at the timber mills such as saw and wood shavings. These are used in the timber industry for the production of chipboards and medium density fiberboards (MDF). Another option for use is pellet or briquette production.
Wood shavings are excellent as bedding for animals. They absorb any moisture and provide a dry bedding layer.
Bark mulch/ plot covering
Bark mulch is often used in home gardens to protect your garden soil and at the same time to achieve a beautiful look. It protects the soil from drying out and provides natural protection against weeds.
The bark mulch is produced from natural bark without chemicals and is also a by-product in local timber mills. Most of it consists of coniferous wood such as spruce and pine.
As an alternative, you can also use our different types of wood chip as a bedding cover. These have a long life if you take the deciduous wood and they also provide a natural wood look.
We do a complete job – our services in the center for expertise wood
Recording & Delivery
Europe-wide recording of waste and fresh wood remnants and delivery of generated secondary materials and by products
Reconditioning
As secondary raw materials, e.g., for particle board production or as renewable fuel for energetic use
Provision
The necessary provision of storage and reloading points due to high space requirements and seasonal fluctuations
Logistics
Different logistical solutions with the use of ports and train connections
