Australia is putting its stockpiles of tyres to better use, with researchers using crumb rubber – destined for landfill, burial, and stockpiling – to create the “perfect solution” for particleboard that is not only more resistant to moisture and termites but better suited for absorbing sound and vibration.
The project, led by Dr Chandan Kumar from the Queensland Government’s Forest Product Innovation team – which is also responsible for developing Cocowood, the world’s first veneer created from coconut trees – is looking to upcycle Australia’s 180,000-plus surplus of tyres, whilst also tackling the shortage of wood needed to produce particleboard.
“There is a big market for particleboard, and an enormous amount of timber is needed to keep up with consumer demand. It’s a big industry, but its capacity is limited by resource timber availability,” Dr Kumar said.
Working with Chip Tyre and Tyrecycle – who provided the crumb rubber, Laminex – which provided the wood particles, and Hexion – who supplied the adhesives, a team from the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia (EWPAA), Hyne Timber, Responsible Wood and Tyre Stewardship Australia (TDA) helped to bring the product to life.
The team then spent the best part of two years assessing whether crumb rubber and wood particles could be mixed together to create a new and sustainable type of particleboard panel:
“We calculated that if even 50% of the particle board consumed in Australia included 20% rubber, the wood panel industry would demand an estimated 82,500 tonnes of crumb rubber a year. That’s a huge sustainability win for both industries.”
Dr Chandan Kumar on the potential for crumbed rubber to be a game changer for Australia’s wood panel industry.
According to Dr Kumar, “the end-of-life tyre glut turned out to be a perfect solution to the particle board industry’s timber consumption problem,” whilst also offering up enormous opportunities for architects, designers, building manufacturers and suppliers, home furniture manufacturers, retailers and many others to benefit from the product.
It comes after Wood Central last year reported that Australia’s largest particleboard manufacturer, Australian Panels, is set to expand production of particleboard by more than 650,000 cubic metres later this year after it got conditional approval to install a new line at its Mount Gambier mill. Whilst more than 70% of Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL), Plywood, and Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is imported, more than 90% of particleboard is grown, manufactured, and sold through local supply chains.
- To learn more about particleboard and the push to supply fully recycled particleboard through global supply chains, click here to read Wood Central’s special feature.
