The European EcoReFibre consortium aims to develop innovative technological demonstrators for environmentally sound and commercially viable recycling of fibreboard.

Recycling wood waste from fibreboard as part of a circular economy approach

It is estimated that 60 million tonnes of fibreboard waste have been generated in Europe over the last five years, with no recycling method yet created.

EcoReFibre, which stands for ECOlogical solutions for REcovery of secondary materials from post-consumer FIBREboards, aims to replace up to 25% of the virgin fibres used in the manufacture of new panels with recycled fibres.

To achieve this, EcoReFibre has set itself a number of objectives:

• Develop commercially viable recycling methods,
• Redirecting post-consumer waste flows to production sites,
• Promoting sustainable use of natural resources,
• Increasing the industry’s resilience in the context of international raw materials markets.

The project began in May 2022 and will run for four years.

19 players involved in this European project

ESB and the 18 other project partners are working together to achieve these objectives. More specifically, ESB is coordinating work on the quantity and characterisation of end-of-life fibreboard available in Europe in the future.