Combining the circular economy and bio-based materials for alternative waste wood applications for the construction industry

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to evaluate the benefits of reuse, recycling and incineration to avoid sending CDW to landfill. To reduce the cost and environmental impacts and to offer a scientific basis for selecting wood waste management systems, a life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost-benefit of waste approach were used. Design/methodology/approach – Selecting the most sustainable approach for the large amounts of waste wood that arise from demolition is challenging. Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) has the potential to have a major impact on the circularity of building materials if they are retained in line with the principles of the Circular Economy. This study evaluates the environmental implications of managing wood CDW in different ways. Eight scenarios relating to wooden buildings were investigated, with four considering the wood waste replaced by virgin materials and the other four using new wood for the second cycle as building materials. Findings – Firstly, this study highlighted differences between reuse and recycling. Reusing wood can reduce global warming potential (GWP), embodied emissions and cost by 72%, 46% and 51% respectively, compared to recycling for glued laminated timber (GLT), cross-laminated timber (CLT) and particleboard. Furthermore, reuse required a lower embodied energy than recycling by 67%, 14% and 25% for GLT, CLT and particleboard, respectively. Secondly, recycling the wood waste into CLT after demolition resulted in lower GWP emissions than GLT and particleboard by 47% and 8%. Transforming waste wood to CLT lowers embodied energy by 63% and 12% compared to GLT and particleboard. Conversely, the cost of CLT manufactured from wood waste was lower than GLT and particleboard by 2% and 4%. Originality/value – These results indicate that reusing wood should be in priority for wood waste, followed by recycling into CLT as a secondary usage.