Waste Wood Savings For CCS & The Planet

As much as we strive to reduce waste, some unwanted material is inevitable. Not only does this waste cost CCS money to dispose of responsibly, but it can also end up in landfill, which we try to avoid whenever possible.

In St Albans, a not-for-profit social enterprise called, St Albans Wood Recycling (SAWR) is preventing thousands of tonnes of unwanted timber from ending up in landfill. Each tonne of wood in landfill produces the equivalent of 800kg of CO2 in methane emissions.

SAWR ensures that no wood is sent to landfill. They manage to upcycle 10% of the material that they collect in their fuel-efficient vans. This reclaimed timber is used for DIY projects in the local community. The remaining timber, which is no longer suitable for construction in its original form, is turned into woodchip. This woodchip is then used in the production of particleboard, as animal bedding, or as carbon-neutral fuel in power stations.

The cherry on top for CCS is that this approach saves approximately 40% compared to the cost of hiring a skip.