Overview

EcoReFibre – Upscaling end-of-life recycling and circular use of recovered wood in the European wood panel industry. The project is funded by Horizon Europe from May 2022- April 2027 with an EC grant of 12 million EUR for 20 partners in 7 countries and coordinated by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The project explores smart technologies to recycle post-consumer waste wood back into fibreboards and into novel building products. Five highly promising pilots, involving leading panel manufacturers, are launched to demonstrate how Circular Economy approaches linked with innovative and digital-supported technologies will ensure the supply of secondary raw materials. These include sorting and extraction of wood fines and fibres and their conversion to valuable products, i.e. fibreboard and insulation products, particleboard and biocomposites. EcoReFibre, ultimately, aims to increase available wood resources in Europe through recycling. The ambition is to substitute up to 25% of the virgin fibres currently used in the European fibreboard market. The project demonstrates how this upscaling of circular technologies can become possible.