ABSTRACT
The total amount of all kinds of wooden waste being generated in Japan was roughly estimated to be about 30 million m3 per year (1). One of the important resources is building construction and demolition because of its quantity and continuous appearance in the waste stream (2) (3). There are no precise statistics on waste wood. The estimated value of the waste wood from demolition wood was 5.6 million m3 in 1989. This was calculated from the total floor area of demolished buildings in 1989, 40 million m2, and the rate of generation per unit area which was assumed to be 0.14 m3/m2 (1). Another statistics showed that wooden house construction consumed wood at 0.212 m3 per unit floor area and generated 0.032 m3/m2 wood waste. If the collection from generation points is proved economically possible, the waste wood can become an important wood material.
