Low environmental impact fibre board products for the construction industry: new designs and commercial delivery for a circular economy

The project will design new composite low density fibreboard (LDF) products that meet the requirements of a large segment of the UK board market whilst incorporating waste/byproduct materials including end-of life LDF. These will be based around a ‘closed loop’ manufacturing process for LDF. LDF is used in high volumes in the UK (e.g. as floor protection and screening through to furniture). Existing LDF board products are imported into the UK and are manufactured from wood fibre often with the inclusion of synthetic adhesive binders. Difficulties in recovery, recycling and combustion mean that most waste LDF ends up in landfill after a single use. The project will build on a manufacturing proocess for LDF from waste and byproduct materials to address design, commercial &materials processing barriers to the recycling of LDF product at end of (multiple) lives. It will develop innovative commercial models (e.g. leasing) enabling the recycling/reuse of product at scale. It will also develop design approaches to enable incorporation of cellulose fibres from low quality sources such as treated black bag waste, enabling them to be incorporated into the board manufacturing process.