Waste Wood Collections Report 2022-2023

In 12 months we’re pleased to say we’ve collected almost 4,000 cubic meters of waste wood from across Glasgow. That equals a pretty massive 1.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Think the volume of Tollcross pool, multipled by 1.5!

Instead of calendar year quarterly breakdowns, we’re taking a more business approach to reporting on our waste wood collections statistics. Below you’ll find an overview of how our collections service has been in the last financial year. For us, this is the first time we’ve been able to gather and present more accurate figures, which is pretty exciting.

By month, you can see in the chart above that there’s a steady increase in the amount of waste wood we’ve been able to collect and process.

Overall, it’s a fairly close 50/50 split between recycled and reused – 52/48!

52% (or 1,987 cubic meters) was sent to be recycled

and chipped to made MDF, chipboard or wood pellets.

48% (or 1,825 cubic meters) was reused

in building products, bespoke orders and projects; to sell as useable timber in the Bay F timber yard; or as firewood.

Our first improvement will be ensuring that as a team, we record consistently and more accurately how the waste timber is reused. We think we might have made more than 9 cubic meters of firewood in December 2022! More accurate records of outgoing timber will also help us to identify how the reclaimed materials are going.

TACKLING THE CHALLENGES

Pallets and various sheet materials are most commonly received via collections. So as a result, we’ve been prototyping products which utilise these materials, expanding our range to include more than just scaffold board products.

By prototyping pieces using the lesser-loved wood, we’re offering more inspiration for the community. Coupled with further external ideas from other people and organisations, there’s a great mix of creativity flowing.

COMMUNITY CREATIONS

Our news section is filled with people in the community upcycling in really clever and unique ways.

An example above includes the Wee Lochan Kitchen on Dumbarton Rd, who fitted out his entire restaurant with our reclaimed wood. They upcycled pallet slats, various sheet materials and hardwoods to create a completely unique interior. The examples are endless, and we’re looking to showcase more of these moving forward.

PROTOTYPING

Our CNC machine is the perfect way to utilise MDF, chipboard and ply wood – a commonly disregarded material.

Most recently we’ve been prototyping a storage crate made from sheet materials (above), which received lots of interest! We’d like to see if we can make flat pack (and maybe stackable), standard Euro crate sizes available (pictured in our September newsletter). More to come on this, so stay tuned…

INSPIRATION

You’ll see our social media profile and those of members of the nationwide Community Wood Recycling network are filled with so many great ideas.

The most challenging part is getting the unusual reclaimed pieces to a new home. If we can offer unique ideas for DIY projects we’d be able to rehouse much more reclaimed wood. We list a small selection of the unusual items on our Gumtree profile, and if you’re able to pop in to Bay F there’s even more to see.

THE NEXT STEPS

We feel we have a responsibility to continue encouraging reuse – with hopefully more than just wood.

We’ve prototyped the use of plastic and fabric strapping for example, and we’ve recently been able to donate a large quantity to a community group who will run weaving workshops. Thinking about how we can extend the lives of more materials is key.

With an increased awareness the climate crisis, we see no reason for our wood collections service to slow down.

But a key objective for us will be to reduce our recycling rates and increase high grade reuse rates instead. Now that we have a baseline, it’s time to begin developing strategies for keeping greater volumes of wood in circulation.