Carried out by TRADA Technology, the report lays out the options available to divert materials such as medium-density fibreboard (MDF) from landfill.
The options outlined include use as a biomass fuel, chipping back into panels, composting, re-use and re-manufacture and advanced thermal treatment.
The use of wood-based panelboard has shot up in the last few decades, growing six-fold in the UK to approximately six million square metres in the 40 years up to 2003. Most wood-based panel waste is currently sent to landfill, because it is difficult to recycle and cannot be easily turned back into new wood-based panelboard.
Possible outlets
It is predicted in the report that there will be around 3.5 million tonnes of panel waste produced by 2015.
The report looks into five possible outlets for panelboard and the short, medium and ling term possibilities for these. The five options are combustion with energy recovery, chipping back into panels, composting, reuse and remanufacture and advanced thermal treatment. According to the report, advanced thermal treatment and chipping back into panels are seen as possible long term options.
TRADA Technology has also looked into possible volumes of panelboard recovery in the UK and estimates that there is around 2.63 million tonnes. The majority of this comes from combustion with energy recovery which provides around 1.71 million tonnes – 1.44 million tonnes of this would be used to produce electricity.
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An action plan will now be put together prioritising the possible options that will benefit the UK between now and 2015. Because of this Reuse and Remanufacture of the panels will be the key area looked at, followed by Chipping and Composting.
As Combustion with Energy Recovery and advanced thermal treatment are seen as longer term options rather than short term WRAP will put less emphasis into these possibilities.
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