RECYCLING TIMBER

Demolishers pulling timber from an old wool store in Sydney, Australia, which will later be re-used for timber flooring.

'Recycling timber' is the process of turning waste timber into usable products. Recycling timber is a practice that was popularized in the early 1990s as issues such as deforestation and climate change, prompted both timber suppliers and consumers to turn to a more sustainable timber source. Recycling timber is the most environmentally friendly form of timber production and is very common in countries such as Australia and New Zealand where supplies of old wooden structures are plentiful.

Benefits

Recycling timber

Benefits

Example of Recycled timber as a finished product.

Recycling timber has become popular due to its image as an environmentally friendly product, with consumers commonly believing that by purchasing recycled wood the demand for "green timber" will fall and ultimately benefit the environment. Greenpeace also view recycled timber as an environmentally friendly product, citing it as the most preferable timber source on their website. The arrival of recycled timber as a construction product has been important in both raising industry and consumer awareness towards deforestation and promoting timber mills to adopt more environmentally friendly practices.
Some hurdles facing the widespread adoption of recycled lumber: Sometimes the ends of wall studs need to be trimmed off to stop decay and cracking, thus resulting in a shorter piece of wood; this trimming may result in pieces of wood that don't meet building codes. Though the price may be less than for new wood, the process of selecting useable pieces of salvaged wood, pulling out nails, and refinishing for a new use can be laborious and time-consuming. Demolition must happen in such a way as to preserve as much of the lumber as possible in a building, which means more time spent dismantling a building rather than just tearing it down quickly. The trade in recycled lumber is not well-established everywhere, so a reliable supply of useable wood may be hard to come by for builders. There may be a stigma associated with using "used" or "cheap" wood that is perceived to be of not as high quality as "new" wood. Not all pieces of wood in a dismantled building will fit in a new building, and it may be cheaper and easier, from a design and labor perspective, to simply get new wood (ex: wood from a 6' deck being used in a 7' deck). Of course, none of these issues are insurmountable, and they are issues of convenience and logistics rather than structural integrity, but many builders find it easier and less time-consuming to simply get new wood in standard uniform sizes.