From scraps to shavings: How our door plant transforms wood waste into farm animal bedding

JELD-WEN’s door plant in Penrith, U.K., is making certain none of its wood waste actually goes to waste.

 

Whether on-site in one of two biomass boilers or next door at a forest products company that turns wood shavings into bedding for farm animals, the wood waste doesn’t have to travel far to be used.

“The exacting process of making high-quality doors naturally generates wood waste during production,” said Hamish White, plant manager. “We make up to 50,000 doors a week. When we trim the doors to size, we usually take 5 millimeters off each of the four sides. Rather than letting that go to waste, it goes through an extraction system and is fed into the boiler via a 60-ton silo.”

 

The Penrith facility’s two biomass boilers, installed in 2016, are an alternative, renewable energy solution to a conventional boiler. Each boiler will burn a ton of wood every hour. It’s all part of JELD-WEN’s commitment to achieving net zero waste and 100 percent renewable energy usage in its operations by 2050, goals outlined in our ESG report.

“None of our wood waste leaves the site to go to a landfill,” Hamish said. “No extra work is required of staff, either. The processes are fully automated.” 

 

The surplus wood waste that can’t be burned in the biomass boiler – roughly 11 tons a day – is used by the company next door to repurpose it into animal beds.

 

Hamish said selling the shavings is cost-neutral, but the biomass boilers generate money from the government due to the U.K. renewable heating incentive and have been a boon to the plant, the environment and the bottom line. JELD-WEN saves on electricity consumption, and kilowatt usage per door produced has decreased significantly.

But Hamish isn’t content to let the Penrith plant rest on its laurels. He and his team are always looking ahead.

 

"Within the next five years, we’d like to use our surplus wood waste to power a third biomass boiler which would then power a steam turbine to generate electricity,” Hamish said. “Across Europe, energy costs have been rapidly rising. This will allow us to be a lot more self-sufficient in energy.”

Read more about JELD-WEN's sustainability efforts in the latest ESG report.