How Much Urban Wood Waste Goes into Landfills in the US?

Urban Wood Waste

With the growing demand for reducing landfill usage, recycling wood waste has been on the rise in recent years.  Overall, wood waste accounts for about 8.7% of the total waste received at municipal solid waste landfills in the United States (EPA 2017).

In 2017, 12.1 million tons of wood were received at landfills while only 3 million tons were recycled and 2.9 million tons were used for combustion with energy recovery. This makes the use of wood waste recycling machinery very important as more wood waste is received every year than is recycled or used toward energy production. The primary components of urban wood waste are used lumber, shipping pallets, trees, branches, and other wood debris from construction and demolition.

How Can Urban Wood Waste be Used?

Markets for end product wood waste include feedstock for engineered woods, landscape mulch, soil conditioner, animal bedding, composting sewage sludge, and boiler fuel. All these end uses have similar processing requirements. First, the wood waste is separated from other wastes, cleaned by removing contaminants, metal, and rock. Then it is processed through wood grinders.

Rawlings Manufacturing – Wood Waste Recycling Machinery

With 45 years of experience, Rawlings has proven to be a top contender in size reduction equipment. We offer a complete line-up of vertical, horizontal grinders in a full range of sizes, Add a wide variety of available options, such as work platforms, conveyors, screening and metal removal and you’ve got the flexibility to customize the perfect wood waste recovery system for your particular needs and budget.

We invite you to inquire about any of the projects that we have completed, to show how Rawlings wood waste recycling machinery can help increase the amount removed of wood recycled and removed from landfills.

Projects

Sydney, Australia Waste to Energy Facility

Wood Waste Recycling Machinery