Wood is a plant material that comes directly from trees, either from the trunk, branches or roots. Wood is characterized by its great qualities, making it stand out from other materials, such as metal or plastic. Some of these qualities are that wood is a biodegradable material and, in addition, when it is used it needs less energy to transform it into a product, without forgetting that it is also a great thermal insulator. Thanks to these aforementioned qualities, it is normal for wood to be used for different purposes, such as the manufacture of containers, furniture, rural houses, etc.
If you want to know how many years it takes for wood to degrade and other details about the further degradation of wood, continue reading this interesting article by Green Ecologist where it will be explained in detail how long it takes for wood to degrade, why it is important to recycle it, how to reuse it and how to recycle it properly.
Each material, depending on its composition and origin, has a certain degradation time, for example, a PET plastic bottle can take up to 1,000 years to decompose, while paper only one year. But, how long it takes for wood to degrade?
The wood degradation time Compared to other materials, being a natural material that comes directly from trees, it is relatively short. It is estimated that a wooden stake takes time to decompose between 2 and 3 years. However, if the wood, for example, is painted or has undergone some treatment, the degradation time of this could reach up to 15 years.
We encourage you to learn more about this material with this other post on Types of wood, their characteristics and classification.
Both recycling and reusing wood are important because, thus, we avoid extracting more new wood, that is to say of new raw materials. Therefore, we prevent forests from being deforested, since the high demand for wood currently contributes to the deforestation of large natural areas.
Another reason why reusing and recycling is important is that thanks to these two simple actions, it is achieved reduce waste generation. The reduction of waste avoids that a large part of our waste ends up in nature and, therefore, that these have a negative impact on it. In addition, the amount of waste in landfills is also reduced, it is important that the least possible amount of waste is destined to landfills, since these generate polluting gases and their mismanagement can also cause the soil and landscape to be degraded, as well. as groundwater and surface waters are polluted.
Here we tell you much more about the Importance of recycling wood.
When we have old wood that does not serve us, or a wooden product such as a piece of furniture that has been broken, before taking it to recycle, as a first option you can always see the possibility of reusing the wood. Some ideas to reuse wood They may be:
Wood is a recyclable material, therefore, old wood that is no longer useful can be recycled. In fact, the recycling of wood is among one of the cheapest and cleanest, since it does not require chemical treatments or important physical processes. exist two ways to recycle wood, depending on its size:
As we have already mentioned before the wood recycling it is one of the cleanest and cheapest. The steps to follow in the wood recycling process are:
If you want to read more articles similar to How long does it take for wood to degrade?, we recommend that you enter our Recycling and waste management category.
Bibliography