Panels & Furniture March/April 2022

NEWS
TOMRA RECYCLING
TEAM DEDICATED TO
STRENGTHENING
POSITION IN WOOD
RECYCLING SEGMENT
Tomra Recycling has been tapping into
new opportunities to maximise the use and
recycling of waste wood. Besides the launch of
a new deep learning-based sorting application
capable of separating wood by type, the
company has also established a team focused
on the wood segment.
Joining this team is Jose Matas, segment
manager of wood at Tomra Recycling, who
commented: “The current market development
offers an opportunity to wood-based panels
manufacturers. Using high-quality recycled
materials allows them to produce superior
quality wood-based panels, achieve higher
yields and outputs while profiting from
considerable cost reductions, preserving
natural resources, and decreasing CO2
emissions.”
The primary use of recycled waste wood is
currently in particleboard manufacturing.
The wood-based panel industry, according to
Tomra Recycling, aims to meet market demand
and improve product quality by increasing
recycled content, resulting in a twofold benefit
for the manufacturer. The company added that
Tomra Recycling’s
AUTOSORT technology
(Image: Tomra)
recycled wood is “up to 40% cheaper than
fresh wood” and generally dryer, which results
in a decrease in energy consumption during
the drying stage of the panel production.
For particleboard manufacturers, the
quest to increase recycled content and
promote sustainable wood management
requires optimised processes and advanced
technologies to recover pure material
fractions from a waste wood infeed stream.
The ideal solution that Tomra Recycling
suggested consists of two sorting systems
– a high-throughput unit for removing inert
material and metals, and an optical sensor
with an integrated deep learning technology
to separate waste wood into different material
grades.
As such, Tomra Recycling offers the X-TRACT
that allows recyclers and particleboard
manufacturers to remove impurities like
inert materials, metals, and glass with x-ray
transmission (XRT) technology. The company
has also developed GAIN, which is designed to
detect, analyse, and separate non-processed
wood and processed wood. Equipped with
AUTOSORT, GAIN identifies and separates
the medium-density fibreboard (MDF)
found in processed wood streams, therefore
producing individual wood fractions of the
highest possible quality for being used in the
production of particleboards and MDF boards.
Fabrizio Radice, vice-president and head of
global sales and marketing at Tomra Recycling,
concluded: “The team’s expertise, combined
with our latest technologies, will help recyclers
and particleboard manufacturers meet
both market demands and exploit the full
potential of their operation while minimising
environmental impacts. In the following years,
we are going to invest a lot in this promising
segment and aim to see that the waste of one
company becomes a valuable resource for
another.” P
POSITIVE OUTLOOK FOR MALAYSIAN
FURNITURE INDUSTRY
A report by Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB)
Research has provided a positive outlook for the
Malaysian furniture industry in 2022, although it
will continue to face some challenges.
The general outlook is due to several factors
that include the relaxation of movement
restrictions which allow furniture manufacturers
to resume operations and address their supply
chain issues. There is also robust demand
in North America driven by work from home
arrangements and the trade diversion from the
US-China trade dispute. However, challenges
such as rising raw material costs, persistent
labour shortage and concerns on labour
practices continue to cloud the outlook,
according to the HLIB Research.
Furthermore, due to severe flooding in parts
of Peninsular Malaysia in mid-December 2021,
rubberwood harvesting and transport are still
disrupted, so prices for logs and sawnwood are
likely to rise. The research unit noted that the
country’s wooden furniture export earnings in
the first 10 months of 2021 declined by almost 3%
year-on-year to RM$8.15 billion, due to the lower
production from June to mid-September 2021 as
a result of movement restrictions.
The US continues to be the largest export market,
making up 62.8% of the total export value. Costs
of raw materials like rubberwood, glue, steel,
foam, leather and packing materials had been on
an increasing trend since Q4 2020. P
Source: ITTO
12 Panels & Furniture Asia | March / April 2022