Reuse wood packaging

Being able to reuse components and accessories from industry, would bring great benefits to the environment. First in the joint venture is wood packaging.

The idea for this sub-project stems from the fact that the industry uses a lot of wood packaging for packaging products, which today are only discarded after transport. If these packaging could be reused by more companies – either directly as they are or easily adapted/rebuilt for the next need – the life of the packaging will increase.

Reuse and handling of wood packaging

In a first step, the project will look at the wood packaging that Volvo and Ålö have, and examine whether a joint reuse is possible.

In the next step, more of viable business hubs industrial companies are involved, as well as examine the conditions for possible cooperation with the construction industry in Umeå that faces similar challenges. Cooperation could be developed on either reuse or in the next step; when the wood material is to be discarded and become waste.

Larger perspective: entire lifecycle

In parallel with this, we shall also look at the entire life cycle; from trees in northern Sweden that are transported to southern Sweden for further processing and manufacturing, and then transported back to us again for packaging, and finally transported away again as waste. What could we do to optimize the entire lifecycle? Here, for example, forest companies, wood industries in the county, Dåva waste management and combined heat and power plants, as well as other companies specialising in the management of waste can be involved.

Reuse and remanufacturing

The sustainable industrial environments of the future will explore more areas where reuse can be developed. An additional dimension to the work is the remanufacturing of the future; when the manufacturer will sell a service instead of a product, and thus also be held liable when the product breaks or is fully used. Read more about remanufacturing at RISE.