Things Recycled Out of Wood

Building Materials

• Forty percent of wood torn from deconstructed buildings finds a second life, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This wood, in the form of doors, timber and other wood, simply gets re-used as building materials. Even salvaged wood in particularly bad shape can be turned into particleboard, fiberboard or insulation board for construction purposes, once ground into small pieces.

Furniture

• Salvaged wood in any condition can get recycled, as long as it does not contain paint that may be lead-contaminated. Once re-milled, this wood can become a variety of new things such as furniture and flooring, notes the Environmental Protection Agency.

Paper

• Most paper manufacturers create paper by combining new wood fiber with recycled fibers. According to TAPPI, a leading association for the worldwide pulp, paper, packaging and converting industries, one-third of raw materials that become paper in the U.S. come from leftover wood chips and scraps from forest and sawmill operations.

Pallets

• The biggest user of hardwood lumber produced in the U.S., according to the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, pallets provide endless options for things recycled from wood. Apart from a new life in things like wood chips and paper, old wood from these pallets can become new pallets or go to repair old ones.

Wood Chips

• Usually, recycled waste wood becomes wood chips and shredded wood, which have endless versatile uses. In addition to use as mulch for landscaping purposes, this wood works well as a bulking agent for both compost and sewage sludge. Animal bedding provides another use for waste wood recycled into wood chips and shredded wood, according to the USDA Forest Service. Painted wood, which often contains traces of lead, provides a challenge for recyclers seeking to keep it out of the landfill. One way to convert painted wood lies in making it into fine mulch that becomes filler at construction sites.