Giving new value to building site offcuts and waste
In collaboration with North Trade House, Troldtekt ensures that contractors and timber merchants can take back clean construction site offcuts and waste from Troldtekt cement-bonded wood wool panels. The returned material is used as a resource in new cycles.
Thanks to our return scheme, Troldtekt paves the way for construction site waste and scrap to be part of a circular economy. Offcuts and waste occur, for example, when panels need to be sawn during installation.
When customers return clean cement-bonded wood wool cuttings and waste from their building site, we make sure they are downcycled.
Troldtekt acoustic panels are Cradle to Cradle Certified® at Gold level. Certification documents that the panels are free of harmful ingredients. They can therefore be safely returned to the natural cycle – or used as a resource in the creation of new products.
"We've been developing and testing different take-back models for a number of years. In recent years, the circular economy has become an increasingly important focus area in the industry, and now the demand has grown to the point where we can launch a comprehensive return scheme," says Tina Snedker Kristensen, Head of Sustainability and Communications at Troldtekt A/S.
Where offcuts and waste create new value
Troldtekt has entered into a cooperation agreement with North Trade House in Brande, which ensures that the returned offcuts and waste are crushed and downcycled to make, for example:
- · livestock bedding
- · stability-enhancing material for animals that graze outdoors all year round
- · weed-suppressing ground cover in forestry and plantations.
In practice, contractors enter into a return agreement with Troldtekt for returns via the timber merchant where the panels were purchased. The contractor – alternatively, the timber merchant or other partner – is responsible for returning the waste at the agreed time and pays a price per tonne.
Read more in our return instructions
The return scheme applies exclusively to offcuts and waste from new Troldtekt panels. Troldtekt also works with several other take-back models, with the ambition of reusing, downcycling and upcycling as many panels as possible from demolition.
Read about our models and ambitions here
Upon return, customers receive documentation of the returned quantity. For example, the documentation can be included in building certification schemes such as DGNB.
Carbon accounting: when does it pay off?
Stefan E. Danielsson, an independent verifier attached to EPD Danmark, has calculated the carbon emissions for Troldtekt from three different disposal methods: downcycling at North Trade House in Brande, local combustion and local landfill.
Even though the building site is up to 1,000 kilometres away from Brande, choosing the downcycling solution can pay off in terms of carbon emissions.
Downcycling emits significantly less CO2 than the two alternatives. So, for the climate, the best solution is to transport offcuts and waste to Brande – even in cases where the building site is around 1,000 kilometres away.
See the calculations and assumptions behind it
Read more about the return scheme here