How to Give Wood a Second Life?

To be honest, there is no single concept of "wooden construction waste," says Lasma Orvida, project manager at "Ekobaze Latvia." This is because all waste in this category is divided into two large groups:

• used wooden pallets, which accumulate in significant volumes in various construction works,

• actual wooden construction waste — used boards, window frames, and various modern panel furniture materials, in which wood dust or shavings are mixed with epoxy resin or other substances.

The main mechanism that motivates builders and construction waste collection companies to collect wooden waste is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system. Its essence is that manufacturers and sellers of goods are responsible for the waste from their products and packaging, organizing its collection, recycling, and reuse, thereby reducing the burden of the natural resources tax (NRT) and promoting a circular economy. In simpler terms, manufacturers whose activities create waste are assigned a tax on natural resources.

To be exempted from it or to reduce its size, they must participate in the Extended Producer Responsibility system. This system also applies to builders: if a company joins the system and meets its requirements, then the natural resources tax can be fully exempted or not paid at all.

With the recycling of used wooden packaging, that is, pallets, it is the simplest — they are a valuable and reusable resource. Therefore, used wooden pallets are returned to several Latvian companies that repair them: they remove broken boards, replace them with new ones, and return the pallets for reuse. In this area, the circular economy works best because the process can be repeated many times.

However, wooden floorboards, window frames, solid wood furniture, wooden cable reels, and various wooden offcuts go to enterprises that produce particle boards from them. There, the wood is cleaned of paint and other impurities, then shredded into chips and, mixed with epoxy resin or other binders, boards are produced. One of the largest companies in this field is "Druplat," which turns construction wood waste into chips; the largest particle board manufacturer in Latvia today is "Kronospan."

The above situations are examples of how the circular economy works. However, unfortunately, wooden construction waste can rarely be recycled more than once — wood recycled into particle boards or modern furniture materials, such as MDF, can no longer be recycled because it is impossible to separate it from the binding substances that hold the material together. Such materials can only be used for energy and heat production, that is, for burning.

The report of the Extended Producer Responsibility system for 2023 shows that 66,700 tons of wooden construction waste and debris are generated annually in Latvia. Unfortunately, less than half of this volume is collected — 31,360 tons. For example, a company like "Ekobaze Latvia" collects about four thousand tons of wooden packaging and construction waste per year, but there are other enterprises working in this field. Almost all collected volume is recycled for reuse, and currently, a negligible amount is going for incineration — just a few dozen tons. If a waste incineration plant is built in Latvia, the volume of incineration will undoubtedly increase, and thus the motivation for manufacturers and builders to submit more wooden waste than they currently do may increase.

It can also be added that a certain volume of wooden waste is generated by Latvian households — this is a relatively new and modern phenomenon. About 20 years ago, households did not submit wooden waste for recycling during the cold months at all — all such waste was sawed and burned in home stoves. However, with changes in heating technologies, households can no longer use these wastes, and a problem arose — how to collect and submit wood waste from private households.