Herman Miller are Closing the Loop on Wood Waste

Wood waste being picked for recycling
Type of organisation or company
Country
United Kingdom
City
Wiltshire
Language for original content
Project elaborated in partnership
Yes
Submitted by
Herman Miller Ltd
Ongoing
Yes
Type of funding
Herman Miller
Description

Since March 2017, Herman Miller is working in partnership with EGGER/Timberpak, which sees waste wood products being reclaimed and recycled into new office furniture products. Offcuts and wood waste generated during production at the Herman Miller production facility in Wiltshire is collected and delivered to Timberpak, utilising empty vehicle space and back loading to minimise our environmental footprint. This wood is then sorted into chipboard or MDF before being broken down to a suitable size. The graded material is then transferred to EGGER where it goes through sophisticated cleaning. Finer wood dust which cannot be used in board production goes through the fuel cleaning plant and into the heat plant to generate heat for EGGER’s chipboard production processes. This enables EGGER to achieve a 98% recycling figure. Up to 38% of the clean recycled material then goes into the production of new particle board. Herman Miller use this particle board to construct products such as the Ratio desk.

Main activity field
Main results
  • This successful closed loop process enables Herman Miller to ethically dispose of more than 1,000 tonnes of wood waste each year, which previously was sent for heat recovery;
  • Closed-loop recycling is a more sustainable concept, which means our wood waste can be recycled;
  • In this case, conversion of the waste material back to raw material allows repeated making of new particle board over and over again.