FEATURES - ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Reduce , reuse , recycle
– recycling timber
Recycling is big in many industries right now , simply because it helps companies save costs . But how easy is it to recycle and repurpose timber ?
By Kelly-Ann Prinsloo
Recycling timber is an economically- and environmentally-viable process . Image : Pixabay
The word ‘ recycle ’ is inherently hopeful . It suggests that , long after the building has been torn down or the scrap has been thrown away , the used timber , steel , bricks and more can be infused with a new lease on life .
Timber recycling is the process of turning waste timber into usable products . In the US and Europe , it became popular in the early 1990s when issues of deforestation and climate change prompted both timber suppliers and consumers to turn to a more sustainable timber source . Recycling timber is the most environmentally-friendly form of timber production and is very common in countries such as Australia and New Zealand where supplies of old wooden structures are plentiful . Timber can also be repurposed as wood chips , which can be used to power homes or power plants .
In 2014 about 900 million trees were cut down . That equates to about 2.47 million trees cut down every day . And , while many of the trees cut for timber construction purposes are also planted for those purposes , deforestation is still a problem that the timber construction industry , and the world at large , must deal with .
54 FEB / MARCH 2017 //