Waste wood market in France

In France – Sylvain Laurent of FEDEREC explained on the BAV-Altholztag (BAV-Waste Wood Conference) – around six million tonnes of waste wood are collected annually. Every year, the collection rate is expected to increase by six percent; 69 percent of the wood collected is recycled and the trend is rising. According to Cambon, 36 percent of its volume consists of industrial waste and construction and demolition waste, 23 percent of the remainder from “industrial activities” and 14 percent of packaging waste. The 27 percent from household and municipal waste is due to an extended producer responsibility for furniture in which two organisations – Éco-mobilier and Valdélia – participate.

19 percent of the waste wood is recycled in the French wood panel production and a further 19 percent in foreign industrial plants. 31 percent are used for energy recovery, while 31 percent end up unused in incineration or landfills. In 2017, the industry was able to market more waste wood than in the previous year, which helped to reduce wood storage from just under 300,000 tonnes to around 60,000 tonnes within a year, but led to a drop in prices. All in all, the turnover of the French wood industry of 169 million euros is said to have fallen sharply in recent years due to unfavourable market conditions.

We expressly thank the editorial staff of EU-Recycling Magzins, who published this article in issue 11/2018, page 30. You can download the article in German here: EU-Recycling_11-2018-Altholz.