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TECHNOLOGY 37
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of all stages of the product life cycle.
Therefore, for an adequate transition towards the Circular
Economy (CE), public and private managers need to make
assertive decisions about waste management.

Within this context, the wood waste from the furniture
industry is a material that deserves special attention, considering
that it is still relatively unexplored in manufacturing industries,
despite the existence of many proven studies guaranteeing a
wide portfolio of products for incorporating said material as
a raw material. This unexpressive use occurs mainly due to stakeholders must be guided on the best ways to dispose
the lack of efficiency in classifying these materials. of the wood waste from the furniture industry. This can be
In Brazil, the vast majority of furniture industries utilise this accomplished through guidelines, strategies, and goals to
wood waste either by burning it in ovens for heat and energy achieve an adequate management towards the CE.

production or by sending it to landfills. Therefore, to better As far as it is known, to date, no other work has addressed
understand the dynamic of this sector, this research focused the creation of guidelines for decision-making on the management
on the north–central region of the state of Espírito Santo, of wood waste in the furniture industry, having as its main
where timber residue is also often used for energy production. basis an LCA study of the projected scenarios. Furthermore,
Regarding the direct destination for burning, the cascade this research steps forward by studying the circularity index
use of wood, which is an extremely widespread concept in of the proposed products.
the European Union, encourages the utilisation of wood waste In this sense, there exists a scientific gap of studies

as a raw material at all possible stages, to be later used for that associate the LCA results with the concepts of CE,
energy recovery through burning. transforming them into guidelines to assist decision-making
Thonemann and Schumann highlighted that, in a multi- on the management of furniture waste.
stage cascade, wood is processed into a product and this In this way, acknowledging the importance of applying
product is used at least once more in material form, before LCA combined with the concepts of CE for adequate waste
disposal or recovery for energy purposes. management, this study aimed to develop guidelines for
Adding to this, the cascade use and multiple uses of decision-making on the management of wood waste from
materials and resources, before their conversion into energy, the furniture industry in the north–central region of the state
has been identified as a strategy to improve resource efficiency of Espírito Santo.

and contribute to the CE, extending the lifespan of the wood Furthermore, despite adopting a region for analysis, this
resource. paper intends to contribute to future research in the field, to
In the study conducted by Pinho et al., the recycling be developed in other locations.
scenarios, mainly for the manufacturing of panels, were quite
promising regarding the results of the comparative Life Cycle Proposed Scenarios
Assessment (LCA), conducted in the five proposed scenarios in A comparative LCA was conducted in Pinho et al., in which
the north–central regions of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. was projected five scenarios for the disposal of wood waste

This also corroborates the concepts of the cascading use from the furniture industry in the Linhares and Colatina furniture
of wood. For a more effective contribution within this context, hubs, in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil.