A study commissioned in Kenya by Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) to provide information on current wood supply potential and current potential demand found that Kenya has a wood supply potential of 31.4 million m3 against a national demand of 41.7 million m3 hence a current deficit of 10.3 million m3.
One very important reason for extending the lifetime of timber products is to maintain the binding of carbon that they represent, which is in part achieved by optimizing their recycling. While timber is evidently a scarce material, pure wood waste can be ground and recycled as raw material for various building uses, hence achieving economy. Furthermore, old timber has the advantage that, since its “dead” it does not twist and therefore provides high quality material. The production of wood is renewable making the sustainability of wood quite prominent among other construction wastes. As Wilfred Visser said, the more we recycle, the less we need to mine.
There is no such thing as “away”. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere.
-Annie Leonard-