Timber and building products need to be protected through packaging to retain their quality. However, to become more sustainable, companies need to solve their packaging needs in a way that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
The aim of the new project, named “Circular lumber foil”, is precisely to develop and test on an industrial scale a closed loop of lumber foil to contribute to reduced resource consumption and increased circularity of plastics in the wood and construction industries. In addition, the project aims to help reduce the use of plastic in the timber and construction industries.
– “Through the new project, we hope to lay the foundation for a circular value chain for plastic packaging for the wood and construction industries. The experience gained from the project will also be used to identify new, specific pilots for circular solutions related to wood in buildings, which have the potential for upscaling,” says project manager Håvard Sørlie of Norwegian Wood Cluster. He explains that the project recently held a kick-off meeting.
– There was great commitment and relevant expertise among the participants in the project group, so it was a motivating meeting,” says Sørlie.
Not so easy in practice
Lumber wrap is usually made from a material that is suitable for material recycling. However, a significant proportion of the packaging plastic collected from the construction industry disappears from the cycle and is lost as a raw material for new lumber foil.
Collected plastic is often sent for energy recovery. Other volumes that are sorted may be contaminated or mixed with different plastic materials from construction sites. This prevents collected plastic waste from being recycled into raw materials of good enough quality to be used in film production.
Testing in a closed circular circuit
The idea for the “Circular lumber foil” project emerged in a cluster-to-cluster project on packaging and construction that the Norwegian Wood Cluster carried out in collaboration with the Circular Packaging Cluster 2021-2024.
– To take a closer look at the challenge, we have recruited seven companies that represent the players in the closed circular loop. They will actively participate in the project together with the cluster and test a concrete circular solution. The project will, among other things, collect plastic at the construction site, produce recycled plastic and test it in use,” says project manager Håvard Sørlie in Norwegian Wood Cluster.
– The pilot test will be carried out in a real environment and will ensure that the results of the project reveal both consequences and opportunities related to environmental impact and costs. In addition, the project will reveal the actual plastic consumption and recycling rate of this type of plastic packaging in Norway,” says Sørlie.
Want to share
The purpose of the project is to develop recycled plastic of satisfactory quality and provide a basis for national upscaling of the solution.
– We are pleased that this project has started. Packaging is necessary to preserve the quality of the timber, but today’s use of plastic film causes greenhouse gas emissions that we would very much like to reduce. By sharing the results along the way through the Norwegian Wood Cluster, we hope that a successful solution can actually be rolled out on a large scale,” says Jørn Nørstelien, CEO of Gausdal Treindustrier.
Important project
– “Gausdal Landhandleri is very positive about this project. “We want to reduce the climate footprint resulting from packaging use. The hope is that through the project we will both develop a recycled plastic of satisfactory quality and at the same time get tips on how our own packaging use can be reduced,” says Logistics Manager Paul Erik Hattestad at Gausdal Landhandleri.
Project “Circular lumber foil”
These actively participate in the “Circular lumber foil” project, which is owned by the Norwegian Wood Cluster: Gausdal Treindustrier SA, Gausdal Landhandleri AS, Blåne AS, Østlandet Gjenvinning AS, Litra Containerservice AS, Norfolier GreenTec AS and Haagensen Plast AS. In addition, Norwaste performs assignments for the project. Faggruppe Bærekraft is the reference group for the “Circular lumber foil” project.
The project is supported by Innovation Norway and lasts 2025-2026.