Recycling as a first step towards circularity: the mission of Unilin

Unilin is Belgium's largest wood recycling company. Today our chipboards consist of  95% recycled wood. We now want to go down the same path with its other product categories.  Time to take it to the next level and recycle even more, sustainability expert Lasse Six explains.

In a nutshell:

• Nearly all the waste wood in Belgium that is not incinerated ends up at Unilin
• Unilin recently became the first company in the world that is able to recycle MDF on a large scale as well
• Now the initial steps have been taken to also recycle other products such as laminate

From its establishment in 1960, sustainability has been a part of the company's DNA. Unilin gave waste material from the local flax industry a new lease of life by processing it in loam boards. Nowadays the flax industry has all but disappeared and Unilin has long since evolved from a flax into a wood processing company. Reclaimed wood and waste wood, Lasse Six emphasises. This is wood that has reached the end of its useful life and is therefore saved from the incinerator. “Our chipboards are composed of 95% recycled wood and 5% reclaimed wood.”

The recycled wood you use is waste wood sourced from demolition works and container parks. How safe is the wood that is processed in the boards?

Lasse Six: “Extremely safe. We systematically check whether the waste wood meets all legal requirements with regard to heavy metals and toxic substances. We not only recycle clean, untreated wood but also wood that contains glue and paint residues. Having this ability is pretty special.Since 2014, we have invested no less than €40 million in a state-of-the-art sorting and cleaning installation. The most advanced machine in our industry is right here in Oostrozebeke. This means that now we can also safely recycle wood of lesser quality. Currently we recycle 900,000 tons of wood per year, making us Belgium's largest wood recycling company. Nearly all the waste wood in Belgium that is not incinerated ends up at Unilin."

"Incidentally, the wood we recycle is also sourced from the wider region, within a 400 km radius from our production sites in West-Flanders. We mainly use this wood for our chipboards, which are composed of 95% recycled wood and 5% reclaimed wood."

How sustainable is the process used to prepare recycled and reclaimed wood for processing?

“The process is purely mechanic, there are no chemicals involved. Reclaimed wood, for instance residue from sawmills or wood from verge maintenance along the motorway, is usually very clean. At our sites we debark the trunk and branches and then shred them into the size we need for our chipboards or MDF panels.

Recycling waste wood requires several additional steps. First the wood is cut up into more manageable fractions. These then undergo a series of treatment processes: magnets, sieves, vibrating conveyors and windsifters. The latter create an airflow to separate heavier and lighter pieces. The end result is a clean wood stream. The side flows such as metals, glass, plastics, pebbles, etc. are separated and, if possible, also recycled. The clean wood is subsequently machined into the appropriate size. The resulting chips are processed into new panels. This is all done in-house.

Reclaimed wood, for example from verge maintenance, is easier to recycle because it is less polluted. We mainly use this wood in our MDF panels."

Your manufacturing process for chipboards can already be called circular. You want to do the same with all production processes. How is that coming along? For instance, can you also recycle MDF panels?

“We can, actually. Last year we invented and developed a proprietary technology called Osiris, a world first. Before it was impossible to recycle MDF on an industrial scale because small glued fibres are extremely hard to separate without sacrificing quality. The technology we developed is best compared to a pressure cooker. The MDF is heated under high pressure using steam until it falls apart into small fibres. This process is called steam expansion. It's truly brilliant in its simplicity. This innovation is a huge step forward in terms of recycling. By 2030, our MDF panels must consist of 25% recycled wood as opposed to 10% today. We are currently scaling up to meet this target.”

That’s impressive but knowing Unilin it won't stop there. What other products are you looking to recycle?

"We would also like to be able to recycle our laminate and vinyl floors. This involves a number of additional challenges. The core of a laminate floor consists of HDF planks that are much like MDF but they are finished on both sides with multiple additional layers in order to turn them into aesthetically pleasing, wear-resistant and stable floors. These extra layers make the recycling process more complex but we are taking up the gauntlet. The first pilot projects for the recycling of vinyl are currently underway.”

 

Who are the brainiacs that come up with these recycling solutions?

“Our R&D teams at Unilin Panels and Unilin Flooring do a lot of work in-house but we have also partnered up with universities and other companies in a European research project that specifically targets sustainable recycling solutions for laminate. For the sustainability aspect we not only consider the recycling process but also the collection and preconditioning.”

 

Did you know?  Number of tonnes of recycled wood in chipboards: ca. 900,000 tonnes of waste wood per year Percentage of recycled wood in MDF by 2030: 25%

 

Recycling more reduces the climate impact of our raw materials. The combination with circular production processes brings Unilin ever closer to realising its climate objectives: 42% CO2 reduction by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.  

 

Discover the importance of wood at Unilin