Background Dirty wood is defined as any wood containing contaminants (such as paint, nails, cement and staples) which prevents it being reused or recycled. It is a major problem in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. Some level of manual recycling already occurs, but this is inefficient, costly and can only ever tackle a small percentage of the problem. Most dirty wood ends up in landfill. The waste reported from the wood and wood products industry sector in 1998 in Ireland was 244 259 tonnes. EU Council Directive 94/62/EC charged Member States to introduce systems for the return and/or collection of used packaging by December 2008. The following targets were set: 55-80% by weight of packaging waste must be recycled; Recycling for materials in packaging waste must be 60% for glass, 60% for paper/board, 50% for metals, 22.5% for plastics and 15% by weight for wood.Though not currently an option in Ireland, incineration is regarded as a means of realising these objectives. The EU has also set a target to double renewable energy from 6 to 12% by 2010; biomass will contribute significantly to this aim, one of the chief sources of which is recovered wood. Objectives The ‘Clean Wood’ project aimed to demonstrate the environmental and competitive benefits of processing waste 'dirty' wood in order to recover up to 80% of it for recycling. The project would remove all foreign materials and contaminated wood from dirty wood, which would be derived from recycled packaging waste and construction and demolition waste. The clean material would be suitable for uses such as (i) boiler fuel in standard wood fired boilers, (ii) feedstock for particle board, (iii) animal bedding (iv) horse gallops and (v) horticultural mulches and others. The residual separated fraction could be used for lower grade reconstituted products, particularly in the packaging industry. The project planned to assess basic sensor technologies, design and develop (in two stages) a demonstrator and test and validate performance. It would demonstrate the system widely across targeted sectors and would present finding at conferences. Finally, it aimed to draw up a plan to ensure the use of the results of the project after its end. Results The Clean Wood plant was built in conjunction with its sister LIFE project, ‘Tyre Wood Block’ (LIFE05 ENV/IRL/000501) during the summer 2007, and capital equipment was installed in late 2007/early 2008. There are two main parts to the Clean Wood process: ‘Mechanical separation’, which separates wood chips from other contaminants such as ferrous and non ferrous metals, ceramics, glass and plastics. This process also grades the chips by size and breaks down larger chips. ‘Vision separation’, which consists of a camera system to carry out fine separation and remove wood that is contaminated by resin, paint and other agents. This process has been demonstrated to prototype level. The clean wood was dried using a moving grate wood fired furnace as the main power source for drying the chips (the moisture level of the wood was reduced from up to 40% to less than 5%). The fuel that was used for this furnace was bark and butt chips and waste materials from the nearby Palfab saw mill. The team also hope to install a CHP plant in the future to reduce the carbon footprint of the clean wood process. By the end of the project, the process had achieved 70% recovery of clean wood from the contaminated supply. There had been a significant reduction in the false rejects, that decreased to 5.38% (clean wood chips falsely rejected by the system). The clean wood produced is being used as a feedstock for the sister ‘Tyre Wood Block’ project to make composite pallet blocks. However, the team are actively marketing the product elsewhere. The technology is replicable and suitable for installation at sites close to an abundant supply of local waste material. The beneficiary expects that the demand for such facilities will increase as the landfill directive takes effect. On a sustainable basis, the Lissarda facility will provide employment for about 50 persons full time, with additional local services contributing to a total of approximately €2m / annum injection to the local economy. A number of additional jobs are sustained through the recycling and waste wood shredding operations of supplier companies. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).