Is plywood enviromentally friendly?

[charlieart66]

Is plywood environmentally friendly if the timber is renewable, or does it have nasty chemicals in the glue?

[SilentButDeadly]

Start with some of the stuff at http://www.ewp.asn.au/ Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia and go from there.....

In most cases in Australia the timber is sourced from plantations using trees that would otherwise not be suitable for solid timber products - mostly too small - what happens in Asia and Europe?

As for the glues there's A bond and B bond from memory and they are both synthetic..........I suspect you'd be in more danger from the finishes that you might apply to plywood rather than the glue within the plywood itself...

[Fossil]

Is plywood environmentally friendly if the timber is renewable, or does it have nasty chemicals in the glue?
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To answer a general question with a very general answer.... No.
Australia sources a great deal of it's ply needs from many parts of asia pacific. All hradwood ply comes from old growth forrests which are clear felled. Since the early eighties when our forrests started to be conserved, we have been importing our enviromental disasters from Asia to quench our own local guilt.

[PAH1]

To answer a general question with a very general answer.... No.
Australia sources a great deal of it's ply needs from many parts of asia pacific. All hradwood ply comes from old growth forrests which are clear felled. Since the early eighties when our forrests started to be conserved, we have been importing our enviromental disasters from Asia to quench our own local guilt.

I think that this is not really the question that was asked ie relating specifically to chemicals in the bonding. You can source ply that does not have the above issues, any that claim to be made from hoop pine would be a good start, as for hardwod check to see where they come from. If foreign ply does not meet your requirements source it from Australian producers, it will just cost a bit more. As for chemical use the vast majority of ply is bonded with variations on urea formaldehyde. The formaldehyde is obvious as far as a risk is concerned but the levels in a bonded sheet are fairly low and decrease over time. If you want to go for fully certified environmentally sustainable timbers then there are a range of people who can supply the timber, including from SE Asia. A good start is recycled/reclaimed timber and then small scale mills that direct source their logs.It is possible to do it all in a sustainable way, it just takes a bit more effort to do it.

[Andy Mac]

The other way to look at environmental responsibility is the end use. In my books a good ply will outlast other sheet goods like MDF or chipboards, so its a better use of the resource!

Cheers,