Canadian association holds wood recycling roundtable

James Donaldson, CEO of the Canadian Wood Waste Recycling Business Group (CWWR), Alberta Beach, Alberta, Canada, says the CWWR held a successful workshop that involved several other trade associations in early December 2016 in Alberta.

The CWWR and representatives from BioAlberta, Alberta Innovates and the Alberta provincial Agriculture and Forestry ministry were among those who took part in a “bio-economy engagement panel discussion and workshop that explored both the market development opportunities and the investment challenges that have now allowed us in collaboration to take the next step in the exponential growth of Alberta’s bio-industrial, wood waste recycling bio-economy utilization in rural Alberta communities.”

Among the goals and initiatives discussed by the Dec. 7 workshop attendees, says Donaldson, were:

• providing collaborative education on business opportunities;
• conducting rural jurisdiction provincial wood waste material and biomass feedstock characterization studies; and
  
• engaging provincial, rural community and county governments to examine and develop wood waste recycling practices, bio-economy, economic, commercialization and markets.

Donaldson says he has been urging wood scrap generators and potential consumers in Western Canada to meet regularly to discuss the market’s opportunities and challenges. “We explored, connected and have created numerous forward momentum-moving solutions that need to be addressed [and] advanced for the future development of Alberta’s bio-industrial bio-economy and wood waste recycling industry,” he comments.

The group’s next scheduled meeting is Feb. 15, 2017, in Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada. More information on that meeting will be posted to the CWWR website as it becomes available.