What is Plywood?
Essentially, plywood consists of multiple layers of thin wood (known as wood venire) and adhesive. This creates a product that is strong, durable, lightweight and versatile. Although it sounds modern, the use of layered woods to create one structure actually dates back as far as Ancient Egypt. Plywood as it is known today started in America in the late 1920s.
How is Plywood Made?
Of course, you need to consider how a product is made when assessing its sustainability. Plywood is engineered wood that involves gluing sheets together at right angles, which is known as cross lamination. The process involves trees being cut down, trimmed of their branches and the bark is removed. Logs are then chopped into manageable lengths and then heated and soaked in water. The blocks are then cut into veneers with a peeler lathe and cut to size. Veneers are dried and then glued together to create the final product.
Is it Environmentally Friendly?
Of course, cutting down trees is a form of deforestation and from this viewpoint, plywood is not a sustainable product. However, when this wood is sourced from a well-managed FSC-certified woodland, it can be done in a sustainable manner without impacting the environment. The glue is not an environmentally friendly product that can slowly emit gas into the air, but this is common with many products these days. Although not entirely environmentally friendly, you will find that plywood is recyclable as a class B form of wood. There are also ways to make the product more sustainable, including using local wood and adhesives with low VOC emissions.
Plywood is a fantastic material that can be used in many ways, but it is also not the most sustainable as an engineered form of wood. Fortunately, there are more sustainable versions available that can bring all the benefits of plywood while being greener.
