New wood packaging made with 70% recycled plastic
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- Wood products
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Timber is exposed to demanding circumstances during storage, loading and transportation. "We have developed a new packaging that consists of 70 percent recycled material, without compromising on quality. SCA Wood will be the first on the market with packaging that has such a high proportion of recycled plastic," says Tom Rautakorpi, product specialist at Trioworld.
The packaging is manufactured by Trioworld and is estimated to result in 54 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to the same product made from virgin plastic.
"To increase our already significant climate benefit, it is important to gradually reduce the remaining emissions. We have long been looking at what we can do better regarding the packaging, and it is positive that we can now make progress in this area," says Jerry Larsson, President of SCA Wood.
As a group, SCA was climate positive with nearly 13 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2023, which compensates for almost a quarter of Sweden's territorial emissions. Alongside the significant benefits created in growing forests, carbon sequestration in products, and the use of renewable products, the work to reduce the company's fossil emissions continues.
Successful efforts to reduce our own emissions are key to further enhancing climate benefits. Against this background, SCA has entered into a collaboration with the Swedish company Trioworld to replace parts of the existing timber packaging, from several sawmills and planing mills, with equivalent packaging that consists of 70 percent recycled plastic*.
"The sawn products are climate-smart in the sense that the tree binds large amounts of carbon dioxide during its growth, and when used as construction timber, it can replace materials like concrete or other high-emission materials. The construction itself then becomes a long-term carbon storage, which is also significant," says Jerry Larsson.
"A good packaging is important because it needs to be durable and withstand challenging transport chains. Therefore, a lot of work has been required to reach the point where we can start replacing existing packaging with ones that are largely recycled without compromising on quality," says Jerry Larsson.
The plan is to start the work in the second quarter with the sawmills in Gällö, Rundvik, and the planing mill in Stugun. In the third quarter, Tunadal's planing mill will also begin its work.
"This is a first step, and with an emissions saving of 54 percent per package*, there is great potential to make climate-smart timber even more climate-beneficial, which is obviously very interesting to continue working on," says Jerry Larsson.
"Our timber covering with 70% PCR fits very well into SCA's work to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in their value chain. SCA's focus on recycled material is entirely in line with the transition we are now working on in our entire product portfolio, plastic film with recycled content and maintained strength and quality," says Tom Rautakorpi, Product Specialist, Forest Film at Trioworld.
* Trioworld's Loop70 timber covering means that at least 70% of the product is PCR, which is plastic that has been recycled after being used for its intended purpose.
