Amazing move in Germany: massive recycling of waste wood

In Germany, the forest coverage rate is 30% of the country's land area and about 100,000 square kilometers. The forest law of Germany stipulates that all forest-covered areas must be permanently maintained as forests. If a certain forest must be destroyed due to urban construction, transportation, etc., the same area of ​​trees must be planted as compensation in other places. In Germany, the annual timber production is 20 million tons. It should be said that Germany has sufficient forest reserves to meet this demand. In March of this year, Germany promulgated and implemented a decree on the management of waste wood recycling. This can be said to be Germany’s The environmental protection field is another amazing move after charging for cans and other beverage packaging. So far, the EU has no similar environmental legislation.

Two main recycling methods

According to the Institute of Forestry Science and Technology of the University of Hamburg, Germany produces about 8 million tons of waste wood each year, which accounts for a considerable proportion of solid waste. Wood is a sustainable energy source. If it is not recycled, it will cause a great waste of resources. In theory, after planting new tree seedlings on the ground after cutting, the forest coverage area has not changed, but the impact of this behavior on the “original inhabitants” in the forest—wild flora and fauna—is immeasurable. At the same time, damage to vegetation and other ecosystems cannot be restored in the short term.

Waste wood can be used for both material recycling and energy utilization. The material recycling and energy utilization of wood is currently the two most common recycling methods. Material use refers to the secondary processing of waste wood after recycling to produce wood chips board, fiberboard or various furniture, etc. It can also be made into packaging materials for reuse. In industry, waste wood can be used as activated carbon, industrial carbon, or synthetic gas as a chemical raw material. The so-called energy utilization of waste wood means that it is used as an industrial fuel for boilers or power generation, and it can also be used for domestic household heating.

Waste wood should be divided into four categories

However, some of the waste wood contains toxic substances and cannot be used in the conventional way. According to the Decree on the Management of Waste Wood, in general, the waste wood can be industrial or civil waste wood, such as waste from wood processing plants, used furniture, borders of doors and windows, wooden packaging, and waste wood abandoned during construction. . In fact, logs are chemically treated to varying degrees in the process of being applied to industrial or civil use, such as oil painting, adding preservatives, etc., so that some waste wood contains toxic chemicals. According to another decree on toxic waste in Germany, if the point of ignition of the waste is 55 degrees Celsius, the content of highly toxic substances is 0.1%, the content of toxic substances is 3%, the harmful substances are 25%, and the irritant substances are 20%. For toxic waste. In waste wood, common toxic substances are metals such as arsenic, lead, and mercury, organic mixtures of halogens, and flame retardants. Because of this, the ordinance classifies used wood into four categories: first, without any chemical substances. Only mechanically treated; second type, oiled or wood glued but not containing any halogen-based organic mixture and preservatives; third type, containing organic mixtures of halogens and containing no preservatives; Class, containing only preservatives.

According to the ordinance, Class III and IV waste wood cannot be used for material recycling. A study by the University of Hamburg showed that many of Italy's woodchips are made from waste wood and their toxic content is severely exceeded. So the most environmentally friendly way to deal with toxic waste wood is to use energy so that those organic compounds are decomposed at high temperatures and heavy metals are left in the slag.

The new law is very timely

According to a survey conducted by the University of Hamburg, the current problem faced by German recycling of used wood is that the market lacks a uniform specification. In some areas, large amounts of used wood are easily transported to landfills for landfills, causing waste of resources. At the same time, driven by market interest, many waste recycling companies have been using the recovery of used wood as a major business. Therefore, after the implementation of the new decree, it was explicitly forbidden to arbitrarily landfill waste wood. At the same time, the waste recycling company also imposed significant restrictions. That is, the waste recycling company can only sell waste wood belonging to the first and second categories to the manufacturers. Reuse, and for the third and fourth types of waste wood, it can only be sold as fuel to power plants. This fundamentally eliminated the arbitrary disposal of waste wood and standardized market competition, thus further protecting forest resources in Germany.

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