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Timber recycling

Timber recycling is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Timber recycling rather than just read about it. In short: Timber recycling or wood recycling 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.

Timber recycling — main illustration
Timber recycling — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Timber recycling belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Timber recycling to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Timber recycling from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Timber recycling or wood recycling 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 environmentally friendliest form of timber production and is very common in countries such as Australia and New Zealand where supplies of old wooden structures are plentiful. Timber can be chipped down into wood chips which can be used to heat homes or generate electricity.

Benefits

Recycling timber has become popular due to its image as an environmentally friendly product. Common belief among consumers is 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.

Drawbacks Some hurdles facing the widespread adoption of recycled timber: 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 do not meet building codes. Though the price may be less than for new wood, the process of selecting usable 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 timber as possible in a building, which means more time spent dismantling a building rather than just tearing it down quickly. The trade in recycled timber is not well-established everywhere, so a reliable supply of usable 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-foot (1.8 m) deck being used in a 7-foot (2.1 m) 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.

Recycling timber

Recycled timber most commonly comes from old buildings, bridges and wharfs, where it is carefully stripped out and put aside by demolishers. At the same time any usable dimension stone is set aside for reuse. The demolishers then sell the salvaged timber to merchants who then re-mill the timber by manually scanning it with a metal detector, which allows the timber to be de-nailed and sawn to size. Once re-milled the timber is commonly sold to consumers in the form of timber flooring, beams and decking.

Examples Use of recycling timber is not new. As early as 1948, the 100-metre-tall (330 ft) tower of Golm transmitter near Potsdam, Germany was built from recycled timber. It stood for 31 years. It was common to reuse wood of dismantled radio towers in the 1930s in Germany, e.g. the former tower of Koblenz radio transmitter was built of wood from a dismantled tower, which carried a T-antenna at Transmitter Muehlacker. The upper parts of the 157-metre-tall wood tower of Ismaning radio transmitter, which stood for 49 years, were built of wood from a smaller radio tower dismantled in 1934.

See also Denailer Dimension stone – stone recycling and reuse Green building and wood Lumber Nash Timbers Natural building Pallet crafts Recycling Sawmill

References

Falk, Robert H. North American Wood Waste Forum: Summary of Group Feedback, February 2–3, 2012. Madison, Wis.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, 2012.

External links The Salvo Global Directory of specialist reclaimed timber dealers The Salvo Global Directory of 6,000 dealers in reclaimed building materials, including timber

Illustrations

Timber recycling: Demolishers pulling timber from an old wool store in Sydney, which will later be re-used for timber flooring.
Demolishers pulling timber from an old wool store in Sydney, which will later be re-used for timber flooring.
Timber recycling: Example of recycled timber as a final product.
Example of recycled timber as a final product.
Timber recycling: Recycled timber salvaged from a demolished building in Trat, Thailand, is applied to make a new roof.
Recycled timber salvaged from a demolished building in Trat, Thailand, is applied to make a new roof.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Timber recycling

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Timber recycling claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Timber recycling before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Timber recycling ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Timber recycling

In research
Timber recycling appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Timber recycling in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Timber recycling is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Energy conservation, Recycled building materials, Recycling by material, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Timber recycling outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Timber recycling in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Timber recycling means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Timber recycling out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Timber recycling in simple terms?

Timber recycling or wood recycling 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…

Why does Timber recycling matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Timber recycling?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Timber recycling.

Tags

  • Energy conservation
  • Recycled building materials
  • Recycling by material
  • Timber industry

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