Forest Products Industry

The Timber Circularity Project team is conducting a survey to quantify the unused and wasted resources produced when using engineered wood products. Source: Timberbiz Offcuts and sawdust, for example, produced during fabrication of shop fittings, kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, office furniture, and other commercial products will be investigated. Funded by prominent industry partners including Forest and Wood Products Australia, Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia, and the Australian Forest Products Association, the project aims to understand resources that are currently wasted yet have potential for future reuse and recycling in a circular economy. As the Australian government aims for a circular economy by 2030, reducing waste and minimizing resources sent to landfill has never been more critical. “Quantifying resources, their location, and condition is an important step in finding circular solutions,” Professor Tripti Singh, Director of the Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life, said. The project addresses the urgent need for solutions to manage unused timber resources, including offcuts and sawdust, which are often discarded. By identifying ways to reuse these materials, fabricators can reduce disposal costs while contributing to sustainability. “The engineered wood products industry is working towards closing the loop and transforming what was once considered waste and offcuts into valuable resources,” said Gavin Matthew, CEO of EWPAA. “The Timber Circularity project outcomes will help identify further opportunities and drive innovation within the sector.” The initiative aligns with circular economy principles, advocating for higher-value applications of timber rather than disposal methods such as burning. Professor Singh emphasized the project’s potential: “Integrating timber into a circular economy framework provides opportunities to enhance its value, reduce environmental impact which will contribute to climate change mitigation by promoting responsible and sustainable practices.” To support this endeavour, the Timber Circularity Project survey has been designed to help quantify and gain a better understanding of the resources. “The survey is an important step in mapping timber resources and determining solutions based on amount and type of resource available. It will help the industry pinpoint regional solutions, reduce disposal costs and value their timber resource,” Dr Pene Mitchell, Project lead, said. Participation in the survey takes less than 10 minutes and participants will be entered into a draw to win $100. The survey can be found here.

There is currently discussion about a carbon credit scheme that would reward native forest owners. On the face of it, this seems like a good idea because actively managed native forests sequester the majority of the carbon sequestered by the nation’s forestry sector. However, the idea being considered is that the scheme would apply where the forest owners ceased actively managing their forests. To me, this is not a good idea. Does anyone remember the brochure prepared nearly two decades ago by the Commonwealth Government’s own Forests and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation (now the FWPA) along with the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting?  It’s called Forests, Wood and Australia’s Carbon Balance.  It’s well written and illustrated and could be found on the web by Googling that name. The brochure I have is the original, written using industry data from 2004.  (I believe there is a more recently written update and also that recent research reinforces the research behind the original brochure.) The researchers divided the nations forests into plantations (plantations), native forests actively managed for commercial purposes (commercial forests) and native forests such as in national parks and conservation reserves that will not be harvested (conservation forests). The researchers found that at that time, approximately three quarters of the forestry sector’s Australia’s net sink of carbon was in and from commercial forests, the rest being in and from plantations. The authors conducted extensive research into the ultimate fate of the carbon embedded in harvested forest products. This included doing things like digging up old tips to see to what extent the embedded carbon in buried waste wood and paper had been released back into the atmosphere. The authors’ conclusions included that where forests in Australia are actively managed by periodic harvesting, with the harvested forest then being allowed to regrow (commercial forests), then in the longer term these forests sequester twice the amount of carbon compared with conservation forests. Our family have for many decades practiced active management of our native forests where the active management has taken the form of periodic selective harvesting, which is the removal of part of the forest cover. Our belief is that in doing this we achieve true triple bottom line wins. For the environment this includes ensuring the biodiversity present in the forest is retained in a healthy state and the fuel load is periodically reduced to assist in the event of wildfires. Socially, these activities provide regular employment for those involved in harvesting, transport and processing of the forest products removed and support our state’s diversified demographic. The economic win is that we assist our state’s economy by providing a sustainably produced economic resource. Perhaps our leaders should read this brochure, to see whether current thinking is still in accord with the research outcomes contained within it. Rewarding good forest management, including the management of our nation’s native forests for their net annual sink of carbon is a great idea, but, please, let’s do this properly. John Lord is a tree farmer at Longford in Tasmania and was National Treefarmer of the Year in 2005 and Tasmania Treefarmer of the Year in 2006.