Wood Waste Recycling in Sweden—Industrial, Environmental, Social, and Economic Challenges and Benefits

Nilay Elginoz, Joran van Blokland, Sahar Safarian (), Zeinab Movahedisaveji, Desalegn Yadeta Wedajo and Stergios Adamopoulos
Additional contact information
Nilay Elginoz: IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Valhallavägen 81, 11428 Stockholm, Sweden
Joran van Blokland: Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Division of Wood Science and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7008, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden
Sahar Safarian: IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Aschebergsgatan 44, 41133 Gothenburg, Sweden
Zeinab Movahedisaveji: IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Valhallavägen 81, 11428 Stockholm, Sweden
Desalegn Yadeta Wedajo: Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Division of Wood Science and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7008, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden
Stergios Adamopoulos: Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Division of Wood Science and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7008, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: The disposal of wood waste at facilities for incineration in Sweden is the only applied management practice today. Energy production from biomass has gained attention for its potential to recover energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, besides being a valuable source for energy generation, wood waste can be effectively recycled into new products. Specifically, recycling wood waste into particleboard is the widely practiced method in Europe, while its benefits have not been explored in the country so far. The objective of this study is to assess the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of producing particleboard and generating energy from wood waste in Sweden. This research investigates four alternative systems for wood waste disposal. The first system involves the production of heat, the second system involves heat and power by wood waste, while the third and the fourth systems, in addition to energy recovery, include partial recycling of wood waste in particleboard production. A life cycle sustainability assessment covering all three pillars (environment, social, and economic) of sustainability was conducted to compare these systems. The results show that adding recycling schemes to incineration in wood waste management practices strengthens the sustainability for all three aspects, and hence, these management methods can be considered as complementary methods rather than competing methods. When all sustainability categories are considered, alternative three (heat recovery and recycling) comes forward as the best option in 11 out of 16 impact categories.

Keywords: environmental assessment; social impacts; economic analysis; waste-to-energy; wood waste recycling; particleboard (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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