Circular economy opportunities to reduce joinery waste in ISJO

Circular economy opportunities to reduce joinery waste in ISJO

The challenge

The Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation (ISJO) – a collaborative body that brings together four councils on New South Wales’ south coast – was interested in circular economy opportunities for businesses in the region.

The ISJO region is home to more than 100 joineries and kitchen manufacturers which generate 5,000 tonnes of Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) and particleboard offcuts, and associated sawdust, every year. The ISJO wanted to know how these businesses could send less of their waste to landfill. They asked thinkstep-anz to investigate how these materials could be repurposed, reprocessed, recycled, or remanufactured.

In contrast to the 'take-make-waste' linear model, a circular economy is regenerative by design. While recycling, for example, converts waste into reusable material, the circular economy sets out to prevent waste and pollution from being created in the first place. This can be achieved by smarter product design and manufacture, new business models and expanding the lifespan of a product and its parts.

Forms of joinery-generated waste materials in the ISJO region

 



How we helped the ISJO

We visited many joineries and kitchen manufacturers in the region and consulted with local resource recovery businesses to understand the waste volumes generated per business as well as the local solutions. During the visits we took samples of the waste materials to analyse their physical and chemical characteristics. We also researched possible end uses for MDF and particleboard offcuts, and the sawdust generated during the manufacturing process.

We then investigated the technical requirements, regulatory obligations, market demand, and relevant standards for each end use. We also examined the NSW government’s regulatory framework for resource recovery as it poses substantial barriers to delivering circular solutions locally and in NSW.

We found that a NSW-based manufacturer had just started to collect particleboard offcuts to use as inputs to make new particleboard. The research and analysis for MDF-based waste and sawdust found significant barriers to further reuse and recycling.

Finding more circular solutions

We then delivered a series of ‘more circular' and ‘less circular’ recommendations for the ISJO to consider. While there are many methods to quantify how circular a product or business is, the most widely adopted is the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI), developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The indicator tracks material flows from virgin stock, to use and eventual reuse. It considers circularity as a scale with degrees of circularity. We did not calculate MCI values formally on this project but used the Indicator to rank opportunities along the scale. 

All recommendations call for regenerative sourcing of timber and wood fibres to be considered circular.

Reuse/Composting: The ‘more circular’ opportunities included establishing a business-to-business reuse programme so that joiners could trade or swap reusable sized offcuts. Another opportunity involved researching the safety and biodegradability of common resins to explore whether the waste could be composted. 

These options would have a higher MCI value as the materials are either reused or composted.

 The ‘less circular’ opportunities included:


Recycling: Extending current recycling programmes by establishing a local aggregation point for recycling offcuts back into new particleboard.



Energy recovery: Using excess materials to generate heat in industrial processes or to generate power.
 

 

 
These options would have a lower MCI as the materials are either recycled or used to generate energy.

We provided ISJO with practical next steps and further research parameters for each recommendation.

Best practice hierarchy for timber and wood products. Source: thinkstep-anz

 

How a more circular economy can benefit businesses in the ISJO

Our work is helping ISJO to understand the benefits the circular economy approach can provide to businesses in the region and is equipping the ISJO with practical ways forward.

 A more circular economy can help businesses in the ISJO districts:

  • enter new markets and customer segments
  • gain competitive advantage – attract new customers
  • mitigate regulatory risks and retain social licence to operate
  • generate more jobs and retain talented staff
  • offer more environmentally sustainable solutions.

April 2022

Leading the circular transition

James Goddin edit2

Meet Dr. Jim Goddin,  the Head of Circular Economy at thinkstep-anz. The Chartered Engineer specialises in circular economy systems design and has worked alongside the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on leading metrics such as the MCI and Circulytics. Moving down under from the UK, Jim brings his expertise to facilitate the circular transformation in Australasia. Jim is a national expert in the UK on ISO 59020 (TC 323) on circularity metrics and is also an advisor on circularity metrics for the £30m UKRI Circular Economy Hub.