State-of-the-art of waste wood supply chain in Germany and selected European countries

Author

Carlos A.GarciaGuidoHora

Fraunhofer-Institut für Holzforschung Wilhelm-Klauditz Institut WKI, Bienroder Weg 54 E, 38108 Brunswick, Germany

Received 4 July 2017, Revised 15 September 2017, Accepted 19 September 2017, Available online 23 September 2017.

Highlights

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A I waste wood as a potential raw material for obtaining added-value products.

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Collection logistics of waste wood is the key parameter of the supply chain.

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Sorting methods should be improved in order to use different waste wood categories.

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Limited waste wood applications due to lack of markets different than energy production.

Abstract

According to the statistic office of the European Union (Eurostat), Germany is the main producer of waste wood in Europe followed by France, United Kingdom, Italy and Finland. Based on the characteristics of the waste wood, it can be classified in four (4) categories: A I, A II, A III and A IV. This paper focuses in the A I waste wood since is the only category able to be used directly for both material and energy purposes without a previously pre-treatment. Currently, most of this waste wood is used for direct energy production due to the previous government legislation that promoted its use directly in incineration facilities. However, the newest Renewable Energy Act (EEG 2017) may promote the cascade-use of A I waste wood prior to be intended for energy purposes. Nonetheless, the government incentives to the energy sector is not the only bottleneck that the use of A I waste wood as raw material in the wood-based industry has to overcome. The peak availability, collection logistics (collection centers and transportation) and recycling facility location are some of the parameters that must be considered in order to design the “best” supply chain network for A I waste wood. This work presents a detailed description of the effect of the hierarchical strategic decision in the proper design of the waste wood supply chain. Additionally, the global picture of waste wood recycling in different European countries (UK, Italy and Finland) is briefly presented.

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http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X17306931