Inorganic Pollutants in Recovered Wood from Slovenia and Boards Made of Disintegrated Wood

Abstract

Due to increasing demands on wood, recovered wood is becoming more and more important. It is mainly used for energetic purposes and for particle board production. This material was polluted with various chemicals (surface coat- ings, biocides, concrete residues, etc.) during service life. These chemicals causes difficulties at the end of service life. In order to elucidate presence of inorganic pollutants in Slovenian recovered wood, 30 specimens were collected on city Ljubljana dump/sorting site, and analysed with x-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF). Those values were compared to the concentration of inorganic elements in boards made of disintegrated wood collected in Slovenian market. In recovered wood, as well as in imported particle boards increased concentrations of the following elements was confirmed: Cl, Cr, Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb. This indicates that at lest part of contaminated recovered wood is used for production of some particle boards.