Construction wood waste is not homogeneous, due to the diverse
range of types of activities which can take place. For example
wood waste could be arising from scaffolding, off-cuts, formwork
and rejects. Although there may be considerable scope to recover
significant quantities of wood waste from this source, not all wood
residues produced are recyclable due to the condition or quantity
of material produced (US Environmental Protection Agency,
2003b). Chipped or shredded wood is used as a composting bulking
agent, sewage sludge bulking medium and animal bedding.
Recovered wood can be used to manufacture value-added products
such as medium density fiberboard and particleboard. However,
these industries demand clean and consistent feedstock,
which can be difficult to achieve with wood from the construction
waste stream. Consequently, most wood waste usually ends up as
input for products such as mulch, or used as fuel (Falk and McKeever,
2004).