Wood Recycling

Every time a tree is felled, a potential Carbon Sink is lost, reducing the potential of our woods and forests to lock away the carbon we pump into the atmosphere. Although Trees are considered a renewable resource, this can only truly be said when forests are sustainably managed.

Wood Recycling Logos (C/O Cardiff Wood Recycling)

Global Facts:

UK:

  • It is estimated that 50 million cubic metres of wood are used in the UK every year.
  • Almost half of the UK’s consumed trees go into paper making.
  • Two thirds of the UK’s wood is imported.

U.S.:

  • To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
  • Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
  • If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
  • If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.

Facts:

If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you’d get about 700 of them. A busy supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket can go through over 6 million paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are just in the United States!!! The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year! The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.

Recycling Solutions:

Solutions are simple, but very effective. Wood can be recycled into:

  • Woodchip for use into chipboard
  • Energy: Wood burned in power stations can provide electricity, with limited release of CO2 (if suitable capture systems are in place)
  • Furniture can be put back into use.
  • Wood can be put back into use around the home in projects

The aim, no matter how waste timber/ wood is used, is to prevent the landfill or open air burning of the waste. Landfill of wood results in slow decomposition and release of Greenhouse gases. Burning of Wood releases Greenhouse gases and particulates into the atmosphere.