On the day before World Recycling Day, Sonae Arauco announces a 12% increase in the volume of wood collected at its recycling centers and an increase to 809 thousand tons of recycled wood incorporated into its finished products.

Sonae Arauco, a major global player in wood solutions for furniture and construction, has wood recycling as the basis of its circular bioeconomy business model. In 2024, the network of wood recycling centers in Portugal and Spain was responsible for recovering 282 thousand tons of wood, equivalent to around 2.4 million trees, an increase of 12% on the volume of wood collected in the previous year.

In 2024, Sonae Arauco incorporated 809 thousand tons of recycled wood, a global incorporation level across the company's entire portfolio, reaching 33%, compared to 31% recorded in 2023. This is an extremely relevant indicator as it compares very favorably with the average of 25% in the European wood-based panel industry.

Even so, in some product ranges, Sonae Arauco ensures an integration of recycled wood of over 70%, and is developing projects to achieve a level of integration of over 75% in some geographies by the end of 2025.

It is in this context that Sonae Arauco is currently investing around 13 million euros to ensure its objectives of integrating more recycled wood. In addition to technological improvements in recycling centers and industrial units and the construction of two new centers in Portugal, the company is developing innovative technologies to enable, for the first time on an industrial scale, the incorporation of recycled wood fibers into MDF solutions, highlighting the company's commitment to sustainability and innovation in the sector. At the same time, the company continues to evaluate other growth opportunities in Europe, as well as new investments in this area.

For Nuno Calado, Wood Regulation & Sustainability Manager at Sonae Arauco, “The integration of recycled wood into Sonae Arauco’s products is a vital component of the company’s activity, which is guided by the principle of cascading wood use. From sustainably sourced raw materials to incorporating by-products from the wood industry, to closing the loop by reusing and recycling waste in the manufacture of wood-based panels, we keep an increasingly scarce material in circulation with distinctive carbon dioxide retention properties. Sonae Arauco is proud of the global rate of recycled wood incorporation, but we aim for more. In Portugal, Sonae Arauco owns three recycling centers, located in the districts of Porto (Alfena - Valongo), Setúbal (Seixal) and Coimbra (Souselas), under the management of Ecociclo, and will soon open two new centers. In Spain, the recycling company is Tecmasa, responsible for nine wood recycling centers.