Highly Automated Wood Manufacturing Facility.

After the completion of the initial project, EGGER again selected Gray for a Phase II on the same campus—constructing a recycling facility to process waste wood from on-site operations as well as through its raw material supply chain from community recycling centers and industry partners.

The new recycling center complements the manufacturing facility’s output by sustainably reforming and redirecting materials back to production lines. With the completion of this Phase II project, EGGER can manufacture products made with up to 15% post-consumer recycled wood at its Lexington facility. This effective implementation of cascading-use principals supports the company’s sustainability goals by extending the total biomass availability of its wood materials and improving carbon sequestration.

Beyond the immediate benefits of upcycling waste material, this new on-site capability provides an opportunity for EGGER to implement vertical integration in its production processes for greater supply chain predictability. The new facility sources nearly 90% of the wood for the operation from within a 100-mile radius and uses rail cars to transport manufactured products to its customers throughout North America. These strategies greatly reduce the carbon impact of the plant’s logistics processes.

Finding creative ways to get more out of materials is not only sound investment, but in keeping with EGGER’S philosophy of taking ecological, economic and social responsibility for the role it plays in communities around the globe.

“We are happy to say that most of the wood material in our U.S.-produced boards is waste wood from sawmill residues and pre-consumer recycled material,” says Markus Frevert, plant manager for production at the new Lexington, NC, facility. “With the addition of our $41 million recycling center, up to 15 percent of the wood chips used are post-consumer recycled material. Only about seven percent comes from harvested timber, sourced from sustainably managed forests.”