New Research to Promote Recycled-Content Building Materials

Building Materials

The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), largest research lab of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, has announced a plan to promote increased use of recycled wood fiber in a broad range of housing applications. The project’s stated goal is to develop technologies so that half the wood used in current house construction can be of recycled origin by the year 2000. Although funding for the initiative is not yet final, the five-year plan is budgeted for a significant fraction of FPL’s overall annual budget of approximately $20 million.