CATWOOD – Reverse Logistics Process Model for Quantitative Assessment of Recovered Wood Management

Modern environmental and economic challenges in waste management require transition from linear to circular economic flow. In practice, this entails considerable challenges that include the change of material circle flux, the application of mathematical modelling and the use of life cycle thinking – also in the field of recovered wood (RW). To this end, the reverse logistics process model CATWOOD (CAscade Treatment of WOOD) with mechanistic modelling for detailed planning of the RW reverse flow with regular collection, innovative (cascade) sorting based on RW quality and environmentally sound recovery has been designed. As a decision support, the quantitative methods of life-cycle assessment (LCA) and societal life-cycle costing (SLCC) have been incorporated into the CATWOOD, which can choose among a few alternative scenarios. A case study has been performed in the Posavje region in Slovenia, which has discovered that reverse logistics scenarios for reuse are environmentally friendlier than those for recycling or energy recovery, but also more costly, mainly because of extensive manual labour needed and less heavy technology involved in sorting and recovery processes. Sensitivity analysis has exposed that modifying the values of the input parameters may change the final LCA and SLCC results in scenarios observed.