PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Sustainable Design and Construction
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1623281
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances In Circular Construction: Integrating Green Materials And Emerging Technologies For Sustainable Construction EngineeringView all articles
Wood waste quantification from the furniture industry in Ubá (Brazil) and its reuse prospects in civil construction
Provisionally accepted
Roziani Maria Gomes1Antônio Cleber Gonçalves Tibiriçá1
José Maria Franco De Carvalho1
Gustavo Henrique Nalon2*
Leonardo Pedroti1Marcos Oliveira De Paula1- 1Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil
- 2Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
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The furniture hub of Ubá, one of the foremost furniture production centers in Brazil, generates substantial volumes of unmanaged wood waste. This study quantifies the generated waste and evaluates its potential for reuse in the production of composite wood panels for eco-efficient buildings. Data from 17 different companies were analyzed in terms of production demand, quantities and types of raw materials, procedures to prevent storage losses, consumption and types of wood waste, waste disposal methods, etc. The total raw material consumption across all companies amounted to around 9,843,137 kg, with solid wood accounting for 662,375 kg (6.73%) and panels for 9,180,762 kg (93.27%). The total waste generated was 884,858 kg, including 458,058 kg (51.77%) of chips and 426,800 kg (48.23%) of sawdust, resulting in an overall waste generation of 9.0% by weight. These quantitative projections indicated sufficient availability of wood waste to sustain local manufacturing of composite panels, woodcrete, bio-based insulation materials, lightweight composites, and other sustainable solutions for civil construction. Eucalyptus and pine residues, predominant in the region, demonstrate high suitability for incorporation into recycled panels, enhancing resource efficiency. These findings highlight the strong potential for integrating wood waste recycling into the local construction industry, promoting environmental sustainability and circular economy practices in the region.
Keywords: Wood residues, Furniture industry, recycled panels, Housing, Sustainable buildings
Received: 05 May 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gomes, Tibiriçá, Franco De Carvalho, Nalon, Pedroti and Oliveira De Paula. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Gustavo Henrique Nalon, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil
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