Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are standardized reports of environmental impacts linked to a product or service. In ISO terminology an EPD is a Type III environmental label. EPDs and their applicability to the wood products industry have been extensively discussed in the Forest Products Journal ¹ and elsewhere in recent years. ²

The US forest products industry in 2013 published industry-wide Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for key softwood products, making it the first basic materials industry in the nation to issue transparent, third-party verified environmental labeling of products. Now, all building materials manufacturers are facing pressure to develop

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Long-term durability data are needed to improve service life estimates for treated wood products used as critical structural supports in industrial applications. This article reports the durability of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) posts pressure treated with ammoniacal copper arsenate (ACA), chromated copper arsenate (CCA), creosote, or pentachlorophenol and exposed for 50 years in southern Mississippi. During inspections, posts were subjected to a pass/fail evaluation by applying a load to the top of the post. No failures occurred in any of the 125 posts treated with CCA or in any of the 75 posts treated with pentachlorophenol. Three of 25 ACA-treated posts and 5 of 25 creosote-treated posts failed. Estimated times to 50 percent failure in the ACA- and creosote-treated posts were calculated as 96 and 78 years, respectively. The estimated years to failure for the CCA- and pentachlorophenol-treated posts could not be calculated because of the lack of failures but presumably would be greater than that calculated for the ACA- and creosote-treated posts. The durability of the posts is notable because the exposure site presents a severe biodeterioration hazard. The results of this study indicate that in-service posts, poles, and piles treated to standardized retentions with these industrial preservatives will be highly durable.

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Wood guardrail posts are the most common wood materials currently used in highway construction. Maintenance crews and engineers are often faced with the challenge of rapidly assessing the extent of decay or damage in individual posts. Many conventional intrusive techniques are unsuitable for inspecting guardrail posts because they are too time-consuming. Acoustic detection could be an ideal inspection method because of its rapid assessment. The potential for using acoustic inspection for wooden guardrail posts was assessed on treated hem-fir guardrail posts removed from western Washington State. The posts were tested nondestructively using an impulse hammer, and then increment cores were removed from each post for assessing preservative treatment and fungal colonization. The posts were then tested to failure in bending to determine flexural properties. All but one of the posts met the minimum threshold for strength according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. There was a weak correlation between acoustically predicted modulus of elasticity (MOE) and actual MOE. Correlations between acoustically predicted MOE and modulus of rupture were slightly better but still weak and lower than would be acceptable for this method to be used in the field. The results indicate that acoustic methods might be useful for detecting the presence of advanced decay but failed to provide definitive estimates of post properties.

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Eucalyptus has become an important substitute material for the burgeoning plywood industry in China, whereas the corresponding fire retardant–treated products remain to be developed. This study preliminarily evaluated the feasibility of manufacturing fire retardant–treated eucalyptus plywood in the traditional industrial plant by veneer impregnation. Eucalyptus saligna and Eucalyptus dunnii veneers were impregnated by a commercial fire retardant at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. After redrying, the veneers were hot pressed into fire retardant–treated plywood in a conventional way. Fire performance was evaluated by cone calorimeter test. Basic properties (i.e., moisture content, bonding strength, and formaldehyde emission), mechanical properties (including modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity), and hygroscopicity were also investigated. The fire retardancy of plywood was significantly improved by the fire retardant treatment, in terms of decreased heat release rate and increased residual mass fraction. The flame spread index values for plywood, which were calculated from the results from cone calorimeter tests, indicate that the fire performance of plywood improves from Class III to Class II after the treatment. The basic properties of fire retardant–treated plywood meet the requirements of GB/T 9846 (Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China 2004). The mechanical and hygroscopic properties of fire retardant–treated plywood satisfy demands of general interior applications. The veneer treatment could be a suitable approach for Eucalyptus plywood factories to manufacture fire retardant–treated products.

Environmental Product Declarations: Market Adaptation to the New Reality

Fifty-Year Durability Evaluation of Posts Treated with Industrial Wood Preservatives

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Use of Acoustic Assessment to Detect Decay and Assess Condition of Wooden Guardrail Posts

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Investigation of Factory Fire Retardant Treatment of Eucalyptus Plywood

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Monitoring Woody Biomass Chips Quality Change during Field Storage in Michigan

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Ash Content of Wood Pellets Made from Small Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) Trees with Bark

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Changes of Chemical Composition, Crystallinity, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectra of Eucalypt pellita Wood under Different Vacuum Heat Treatment Temperatures

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[Technical Note] Thermal Insulation System Made of Wood and Paper for Use in Residential Construction

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Patterns of Knife Edge Recession in an Industrial Chipper-Canter

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Predicting and Correlating the Strength Properties of Wood Composite Process Parameters by Use of Boosted Regression Tree Models

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Forest Products Industry Size and Economic Multipliers in the US South

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An Empirical Analysis of China's Wood Pulp and Recovered Paper Imports Using an Augmented Gravity Model Approach

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Analysis of the Impact of Chinese Wood Product Manufacturers' Exports

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Consumers' Environmental Perceptions of Children's Furniture in China

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Impact of Market Price Fluctuations on the Break-Even Log in Hardwood Sawmills

High-Performance Formaldehyde-Free Lignin Adhesives from Sugarcane Bagasse via Epoxy Cross-Linking

Regional Drivers of Primary Wood Processing Mills in the Western Southeast US

Shear and Bending Properties of Homogeneous and Hybrid CLT Panels Fabricated from Low-Value North American Hardwood Species

Tourists’ Pro-Environmental Behavior in Forest-Based Tourism through Multi-Methods Analysis

Using Life-Cycle Assessments to Demonstrate the Impact of Using Wood Waste as a Renewable Fuel in Urban Settings for District Heating

Study on Urea-Formaldehyde Prepolymer and Hot-Press Treatment of Italian Poplar Wood

Evaluation of Strategic Software Investments for the Canadian Cabinet Industry

Vermont Stumpage Price Trends Revisited: With Comparisons to New Hampshire

Demonstration Results from Greenhouse Heating with Bio-Oil