In this chain, the pallet block complements existing production cycles with high-quality finishing.
STRATEGY
EUROBLOCK stands for 100% wood recycling
The EUROBLOCK press block is the epitome of a sustainable product. Made from natural sawdust, which is produced during the cutting of round logs, or from recycled wood shavings, the press blocks perform real heavy work as a building block for wooden pallets. About the sustainable strategy of EUROBLOCK to conserve the valuable resource of wood through efficient use of raw materials and recycling.
Making 100 percent use of wood as a raw material is the inner drive of EUROBLOCK and the cornerstone of entrepreneurial success. Ecology, economy and corporate values make it necessary to practice the zero waste principle and a completely closed value chain in the fully integrated sawmills of the EUROBLOCK parent company Pfeifer.
Every cubic meter of logs counts
Around 5.4 million solid metres of wood from sustainably managed forests are cut into the Group's sawmills every year. However, not a single additional tree has to fall for the 1.3 billion pallet blocks that EUROBLOCK sells annually.
1 tree = 100.000 trees
By efficiently using the recyclable materials and recycled wood, around 2.3 million solid meters of round timber can be saved every year. This corresponds to about 3 million trees, which, for example, find a higher purpose in timber construction or can stop at all. As a matter of principle, not a single chip remains unused in the sawmills. In addition to EUROBLOCK pallet blocks, saw by-products such as bark, wood chips and wood chips are also used to produce pellets, briquettes or bio-energy.
Leonhard Scherer, Management
Waste wood as a valuable secondary raw material
Once put into circulation, wooden pallets with press block blocks convince with their long service life and, unlike plastic pallets, can be easily repaired. Only when this is no longer possible do they re-enter the cycle, crushed into recycled wood, and can be processed into pressed block blocks again. This material recycling will continue until the wood residues in the biomass power plant reach the last stage of the cascade.
Presswood International B.V., the 50 percent shareholder of EUROBLOCK based in Ermelo in the Netherlands, has been practicing waste wood recycling since the early 1990s. Thus, EUROBLOCK as a whole has been operating this optimal use of raw materials in the cascade for over 30 years. With the new waste wood recycling plant at the Uelzen site, Pfeifer is now sending a strong signal for the expansion of recycling.
Waste wood recycling in Uelzen from autumn 2023
Of the almost 8 million tons of recycled wood produced annually in Germany, only about 20 percent is currently recycled. With the new waste wood recycling plant in Uelzen, which is scheduled to go into operation in autumn 2023, Pfeifer wants to make even better use of the unused potential and process about 70,000 tons of waste wood of pollutant classes A1 and A2 annually. These include products that are natural or finished with harmless adhesives or coatings, such as discarded pallets made of solid wood or transport boxes made of wood-based materials.