Following the Results in Brief on future fibreboard waste volumes in Europe, EcoReFibre turns to the next step: how this material can be sorted and prepared for recycling. The Results in Brief and Factsheet show an innovative sorting line that separates mixed wood waste into usable fractions for new wood-based panels.

Developed by Dieffenbacher, the multistage process combines cleaning, optical sorting and machine learning to separate mixed wood waste into usable fractions, recovering solid wood with 95% purity and fibreboard with 97% purity. More than 100 tonnes of material were processed, showing the industrial relevance of the approach and its potential to support more circular wood-based production.

By separating mixed wood waste into cleaner fractions, the sorting line creates the conditions for higher value recycling pathways. In this way, sorting becomes a key enabling step, making it possible to recover fibreboard more effectively and prepare it for further processing into fibres and fines.

This second Results in Brief moves the story from understanding the resource to showing how it can be separated and made ready for recycling. The next publication will focus on how these sorted fractions can be transformed into secondary raw materials for new products.

Click below to download:
• Results in Brief on Sorting
• Project Innovation Factsheet on Sorting