Lifetime effects on wood waste generation and the cascading potential of waste wood from Finnish houses

The study integrates an inflow-driven dynamic material flow model to estimate both the quantity and quality of wood outflows using lifetime distributions. It also assesses the cascading potential of wood under two scenarios: one with cascading and one without. The model builds upon the dynamic-stock-model Python package, which the authors further developed to incorporate material quality. As input, the model uses the gross floor area of houses built in Finland between 1966 and 2020. The findings underscore the crucial role of decay functions and the selection of their variables, highlighting the need for continued research to refine these aspects. The scenarios and lifetime effects reveal that wood cascading has a greater effect on reducing total wood outflows than merely extending the lifetime of buildings. Furthermore, the cascade scenario (30 % reuse and 70 % recycling) shows a great potential for cascading in the wood sector, highlighting its effectiveness in minimizing wood waste compared to the non-cascading scenario.