Sveza to become a low-waste plywood producer by 2024

Recycling wood waste to produce by-products and heat is another step towards efficient utilization of timber, which is one of the company’s priority strategic goals.

In 2022, the Russian Government initiated a nationwide switch to the circular economy. The respective national project involves a major reduction in waste generation and the creation of a recycling infrastructure. Recognizing the importance of environmental protection and awareness for the sustainable development of the company and the society, Sveza Group started a waste segregation system at its plywood mills focusing on the elimination of wood from the mills’ waste streams.

Consistent modernization efforts at Sveza’s plywood mills have increased wood waste recycling rate to 95% by 2023, and the company is expecting to achieve 100% in 2024.

Bark, chips, and sawdust from plywood production are mostly used for in-house production of electricity and heat. By-products made of wood waste include fuel briquettes and particleboard. Wood waste is a popular material for setting up winter storage of plywood logs. In addition, Sveza’s Technology Development Centers and R&D Department developed and patented an original method of gluing cross-cutting waste logs together into good material for peeling, which saves the company up to 40 carloads of raw logs annually.

Sveza’s ultimate goal is to take environmental protection to the next level. To that end, the company revised its environmental protection policy in 2023, to include provisions on the improvement of the corporate environmental management system. Other tools include a risk-based approach, multi-layer control and monitoring, and initiatives to raise environmental awareness for in-house personnel and contractors.

“We implement global best practices in our plywood mill and forestry operations and encourage implementation of bio- and circular economy innovations and tools. Sveza builds its strategy on the principles of Zero Waste philosophy and strives to make a meaningful contribution to the national and global clean energy and climate change goals. We closely work with the federal and regional authorities and develop methods to ensure 100% recycling of wood waste to eliminate it from the waste steams company-wide,” says Valentina Likhacheva, Director for Corporate Communications and Sustainable Development at Sveza.