Environmental benefits and recycling options for wood chips from furniture industries

Abstract

Wood chips are generated from wood industries, particularly from furniture manufacturing. The general reuse options are, however, currently limited to low-value applications. Driven by the adverse impacts of climate change, with the aim of achieving more environmental sustainability through reducing waste and increasing reuse/recycle options, this study investigated the feasibility of using wood chips as a pipe backfilling and embankment fill material. A laboratory assessment undertaken in this research shows that wood chips are suitable as a non-structural embankment fill material, but not as a pipe backfilling material. This research also presents the environmental benefits of using wood chips in natural landscaping and the effects of filter depth in such applications. It is found that wood chips significantly trap total suspended solids (TSS) and total nitrogen (TN), contributing to increased total phosphorus (TP) concentration. As such the use of such material in urban landscaping should be subjective depending on the level of concerns for specific pollutant(s) (TSS, TN and TP). With regard to the effect of filter media depth on pollutants' removal efficiencies, it is found that the pollutants' removal efficiencies linearly vary with filter media depth.