Management of Recovered Wood - 3rd Conference of COST Action E31

Reaching a Higher Technical, Economic and Environmental Standard in Europe

 3^rd Conference of COST Action E31

2 – 4 May 2007

Bildungshaus Schloss Krastowitz, Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria

9020 Klagenfurt www.schloss-krastowitz.at

Tel: +43 463/5850-2502, Fax: +43 463/5850-2040, Email: office@krast.lk-kaernten.at

 Photos: http://iefs001.joanneum.at/cost07/index.htm

The 3^rd Conference on „Management of Recovered Wood – Reaching a Higher Technical, Economic and Environmental Standard in Europe“ took place in Klagenfurt/Austria, 2- 4 May 2007. 65 participants out of 24 nations presented the results of their current work and discussed future perspectives of the use of Recovered Wood in the framework of COST Action E31 “Management of Recovered Wood”

The first time an estimation of the amount of Recovered Wood in 20 COST E31 countries was presented: about 30 Mio tons of Recovered Wood are produced annually which corresponds to about 13% of the annual round wood consumption of 227 Mio tons and about 444PJ/a or 0.7% of the primary energy consumption of 67,000PJ/a in these 20 countries.

Currently about 34% of the Recovered Wood is used for energy generation, 38% is being recycled and 28% is being composted or put into landfills. With the current management options already 11 Mio. tons CO₂-emissionsen per year are saved by substituting fossil fuels and about 10 Mio. tons of fresh wood by recycling.

By establishing a European forum for the management of Recovered Wood in the last 5 years the main benefits of the COST Action E31 were reached in the multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural ‘team’, by collecting, discussing and providing information on:

-          different management options for Recovered Wood,

-          various assortments and quality criteria of Recovered Wood,

-          establish methodologies for environmental, technical and economical evaluation of different Recovered Wood treatment options.