A new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) commissioned by MDF Recovery (MDFR) demonstrates that replacing virgin wood fibres with recycled fibres recovered from waste medium density fibreboard (MDF) can significantly reduce the environmental impact of MDF manufacturing.

The independent study, conducted by Eunomia Research and Consulting Ltd, compared MDF produced entirely from virgin fibres with MDF boards incorporating recycled fibres recovered using MDFR’s proprietary fibre recovery process. The analysis evaluated environmental impacts across multiple categories using the European Commission’s Environmental Footprint (EF 3.1) methodology.

The findings show that MDF boards produced with recycled fibres consistently outperform conventional boards across most impact categories, including climate change, fossil resource use, land use, and photochemical ozone formation.

Incorporating 30% recycled fibre into MDF production was shown to reduce the board’s carbon footprint by approximately 12–13% during manufacturing, while higher recycled fibre content delivered even greater benefits. MDF boards containing 60% recovered fibre achieved carbon footprint reductions of up to 26% compared with boards made entirely from virgin wood fibre.

The study also highlights major reductions in land use impacts due to the reduced demand for timber when recycled fibres are used.

Recovered fibre produced through the MDFR process was shown to have lower environmental impacts than virgin fibre production, primarily because the recycling process requires significantly less energy than processing new timber into fibres.

“Replacing virgin wood fibre with high-quality recycled fibre represents a significant opportunity to reduce the environmental footprint of MDF production,” the report concludes. “Increasing the proportion of recovered fibre in MDF manufacturing offers clear benefits across several key environmental impact categories.”

Future research will expand the analysis to incorporate additional factors relevant to Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), including the biogenic carbon stored in wood products and the use of renewable energy sources in MDF manufacturing. Early modelling suggests that these factors could deliver a further 30–50% reduction in carbon emissions.

The study was conducted in accordance with ISO 14040/44 standards for Life Cycle Assessment.

To request an executive summary of the study please email answers@mdfrecovery.co.uk.