Developing recycling technology for fibreboards
The EcoReFibre project aims to develop and demonstrate commercially viable technologies for sorting and separating secondary fiberboard raw materials from post-consumer wood-products waste. The goal is to align fiberboard recycling with the EU’s circular economy and waste reduction targets.
The global production of wood-based fiberboards has increased significantly since the 1970s, now exceeding 100 million cubic meters annually. At the same time, more than 40 million cubic meters of fiberboard waste are generated each year. Despite this, very little is recycled – mainly due to the lack of effective sorting and recycling technologies.
Currently, medium-density and high-density fiberboards (MDF and HDF) are made entirely from virgin wood and typically incinerated at end-of-life for energy recovery. EcoReFibre is working to change this by developing technologies that can enable up to 25% of virgin wood in fiberboard production to be replaced by recycled material.
Securing raw materials from recycled wood
This project also sets out to address the constraining pressures on current levels of particleboard manufacture from recycled materials, pressures that arise from the growing levels of post-consumer fiberboard waste entering wood recycling streams. By developing technologies to separate and utilize fiberboard waste fractions, EcoReFibre will help to secure the secondary raw materials from wood waste needed to maintain and grow current levels of particleboard production from recycled materials.
EcoReFibre technology development and upscaling are partly steered by assessing net environmental and social lifecycle impact gains in comparison to conventional fiberboard production value chains from virgin materials.
How much fiberboard becomes waste?
The project recently launched a crowd wisdom survey to map the amount of fiberboard that become waste in Europe. You can read more about the survey here: EcoReFibre Launches Survey to Predict Fibreboard Waste in Europe Using Crowd Wisdom.
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Project facts
- Project name: EcoReFibre – Ecological Solutions for Recovery of Secondary Raw Materials from Post-Consumer Fibreboards
- Budget: 14 819 221.25 EUR
- Funding: EU Horizon Europe
- Partners: Sverige Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Ecole Superieure Du Bois Esb Association, Institut Technologique Fcba, NIBIO - Norsk Institutt For Biookonomi, Institut Fur Holztechnologie Dresden gGmbH, IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet AB, Federation Europeenne De Panneaux A Base De Bois, InnovaWood Asbl, Federazione Italiana Delle Industrie Del Legno Del Sughero Del Mobilee Dell' Arredamento Associazione, Steinbeis Innovation gGmbH, Dieffenbacher GmbH Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, Sonae Arauco Deutschland GmbH, Homanit GmbH Co. Kg, Smartpanel AS, Soprema, Cormatex Srl-Macchinario Tessile Eimpianti, Biesse SpA, Manifaktura SRL, Veolia Proprete, Metallurgy4 Idiotiki Kefalaiouchiki Etaireia
- Period: 2022 - 2026
Contributes to the UN Global Goals
