Member of the EU Parliament visited the Thünen Institute of Wood Research

For the implementation of a sustainable, circular and climate-smart bioeconomy, innovative wood-based technologies and products can play an important role. This is also fundamentally reflected in the topics of sustainability, resource efficiency and climate protection of the European Green Deal (EGD). The Thünen Institute of Wood Research focuses on these topics, for example on the material usability of wood and other lignocelluloses and on the long-term fate of wood and wood products in the material cycle.

Ms Burkhardt and her delegation were informed about the institute's tasks and the laboratory infrastructure. In short presentations, our work was presented on the standard-compliant preparation of life cycle assessments for many products made of wood as well as the feeding of these data into public databases. The use of these data for the evaluation of the environmental and climate protection effects of wood use was also discussed. The extent to which recycling possibilities and processes can contribute to improving the circular economy was demonstrated by examples of waste wood use and work on the more frequent reusability of waste paper by the addition of reinforcing fibres. The topics addressed also included the use of wood extractives as paper coating agents and the use of the residual lignin as a bio-based raw material for new types of adhesives.