REusing COnstruction Wood through a common EuRopean Standard

Timber construction following circular economy principles and reuse of building waste materials are important for carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation.

The demolition sector generates a large amount of timber products that could be reused directly or recycled for structural purposes.

However, nowadays there is no established recovered timber market due to the lack of a standardized classification system for this product.

The overall objective of this project aims to develop a grading system for recovered timber and create a European standardized framework.

A first step of analyzing available data is following by a secondment at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) with an internationally recognized expert in European standardization.

After that, innovative solutions using non-destructive grading procedures and testing techniques like infrared thermography will be developed and the grading procedure will be validated in companies.

Finally, the grading system will be presented in the European committees of standardization of timber construction and circular economy to publish a standard.

The project will involve national and international standardization committees of timber construction and circular economy, stakeholders and companies apart from exploring the potential market and structural uses of recovered timber.