Finding the Highest Uses for Urban Wood Waste

by J.K. Fairchild

Each day, thousands of trees from the urban forest that stand in the way of commercial development will be removed in the name of progress. Land will be cleared to make room for new buildings and parking lots, causing trees to be cut down. They will most likely be chopped into pieces and sent to the landfill as solid waste.

According to Steve Bratkovich, Forest Products Specialist, US Forest Service, “The equivalent of 3.8 billion board feet from municipal trees alone, is annually either landfilled, burned, chipped or left to rot. This is roughly equivalent to 30% of the US annual hardwood lumber production.”

To use some of this waste, Marcus von Skepsgardh founded PAL’s Tree Recycling Yard, a nonprofit urban tree recycling program in the San Francisco Bay area. Nationally, PAL’s offers a prototype of a workable urban tree recycling operation and locally, it provides a source of recycled and salvaged wood products for the public, while offering an alternative destination for urban trees and logs otherwise headed for landfill.

The end results include substantial landfill diversion, valuable uses for urban waste wood, green building materials, reduced demand for virgin timber, conservation of natural resources, increased public environmental awareness and job opportunities.

Building Demand for Sustainable Wood Products
Most people don’t associate the trees in their yards with the lumber and wood products they buy in stores. They rarely question where the trees end up when they are removed. Once they learn about it they are amazed that a program like ours is not mandated in every municipality.

The products that come from the salvaged urban trees include decorative lumber, flooring, decking, three-inch slab counter tops, bar tops and table tops, ranging from 5-20 feet long. “It’s wonderful to see Eucalyptus wood, a tree that everyone considers a weed and a nuisance, installed and finished as flooring in a high-end building project,” Marcus says.

In addition to milling lumber, PAL’s custom builds indoor and outdoor furniture such as benches and tables. In conjunction with the tree yard, the PAL Foundation promotes a program it started in 1995, creating and displaying interactive sculptures that educate and bring awareness to endangered species through the medium of the trees.

Diverting 5000 Tons Annually
The tree recycling program currently diverts 5000 tons of urban wood from California landfills annually. PAL mills lumber on-site at its tree yard located in the former Oakland Army Base, near the San Francisco Bay Bridge. It also offers tree pick-up service to remove felled, limbed trees locally. The program has received support from the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board, San Francisco Department of the Environment and local foundations.

“Nearly 95% of America’s forests have been logged during the last 200 years. The undeniable fact is that all species of this planet, including human beings, are 100% dependent on trees. The absolute last place they belong is in the garbage. If we recycle paper to save trees, why not recycle the trees to save trees? It only makes sense.”

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J.K. Fairchild is with the PAL Foundation and PAL’s Tree Recycling Yard.

www.recycletrees.org

FROM Biocycle, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner