Thread: Plywood without any formaldehyde?

Unless its going in an uncurtained, uncarpeted, unupholstered, unventilated area, worrying about the formaldehyde emissions from a desk is like worrying that the firemen trying to save your house are dribbling a bit of water on the floor.

Formaldehyde is also produced by plants and animals, so don't have any of them in the room, either.

As far as I'm aware, all plywoods are made with some variety of formaldehyde based adhesive. I'd just buy from a reputable manufacturer (ie no Chinese plywood) and really not worry about the formaldehyde.

Or you could make your own plywood, using an epoxy adhesive if you wanted no formaldehyde emissions.

The following page may help: http://www.sefalabs.com/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=3394 or http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/725.html

Hi Master Splinter,

I know there are many other things in households that can off-gas, but I'm simply trying to do what I can to minimise this.

I know there are formaldehyde free plywoods available in the US - I just haven't been able to source them in Australia yet.

So if there's anyone else who knows where to find it, I'm still interested!

Other option is to stack the plywood for a year, then its formaldehyde emissions will be less than the natural background levels.

A good proportion of people exhale formaldehyde in their breath at levels (10 to 20 parts per billion) higher that the 8ppb 'risk' level, so the effort in tracking down formaldehyde free ply will be undone by the metabolic processes of about 1/3 of the population.

If you are doing it as a commercial undertaking (ie manufacturing/selling furniture to the same demographic who buy dream catchers and healing crystals) just bite the bullet and import some of the US stuff and up the prices to cover the freight - the market research I've read indicates that there is a good proportion of this demographic that will happily pay 30-50% over an already 'premium' price for such extreme-green credentials.

If you are doing it as a USP for a one-man business, then I think the idea of making your own using epoxy adhesive adds another nice unique selling proposition to to the product!

Hi,
Although you can't get formaldehyde free plywood in Australia, you can get Australian manufactured plywood from Australply, who state: "Our A Bond products (Marine, Exterior, Structural) are certified to Super E0, the lowest emission rating obtainable. Our C Bond products (Interior) have an E0 rating), the second lowest emission rating."

Disappointingly, Bunnings and some other large hardware chains choose to sell plywood manufactured in Asia, instead of Australia. There has been some controversy about the quantities of formaldehyde used in the manufacturing of some asian plywood products. I guess it works for the large hardware chains because they can sell their plywood panels cheap and everyone wants cheap these days.

Cheers