Recycling as a first step towards circularity

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: “Totally and completely 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 to prepare recycled wood for processing?

“Recycling waste wood involves a series of steps. First the wood is cut up into more manageable fractions. These then undergo a series of treatment processes: magnets, sieves, vibrating conveyors and wind sifters. The latter create an airflow to separate heavier from 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, thanks to a proprietary technology we invented and developed in-house a few years ago. This technology is a world first. Before it was impossible to recycle MDF on an industrial scale because small glued fibres are extremely hard to separate without compromising on quality. The technology we developed can best be 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 contain 25% of 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 some 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 geared specifically to sustainable recycling solutions for laminate. For the sustainability aspect we not only tackle the recycling process but also the collection and preconditioning.”

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