A Comprehensive Review on Waste Generation, Management and Environmental Effects in The Plywood Industry
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Abstract
Plywood industry is a major industry in the global wood-processing industry that provides engineered wood products in the construction, furniture and packaging. However, another plywood manufacturing generates different types of wastes-solid, liquid, gaseous and adhesives and chemicals that may pose health hazards to their environment and health. The review is a summarization of the literature that exists regarding the generation of waste in plywood mills, the character of the largest waste products (sawdust and wood residues, adhesive residues and sludges, wastewater contaminated with phenols and formaldehyde, and gaseous emissions containing volatile organic compounds), waste treatment and management methods, the environmental impact of the life-cycle, regulations, and mitigation technologies. The most important mitigation measures are resource-efficient mill layout, residue valorization (energy recovery, particleboard reprocessing, briquetting), advanced wastewater treatment (physical-chemical system, biological system), low-emission adhesives and process optimization to reduce VOCs and formaldehyde emissions and occupational controls to limit the exposure of workers to the wood dust and toxic emissions. The gaps which remain in the critical knowledge regarding the standardized reporting of the waste quantities and effectiveness of waste management in various regions, long-term monitoring of groundwater in the surrounding of mills and life-cycle comparison of other adhesive systems. In this paper, recommendations of industry best practice, research agenda and policy interventions have been provided to restrict the environmental footprint of plywood production.