A company in the U.S. produces ecological material from the remains of abandoned wooden buildings

U.S.-based startup Baltimore Wood Project recycles abandoned buildings and turns them into environment-friendly wood, Waste Advantage Magazine reports.

The company collects wood waste from old buildings, then dries, treats, and sorts it, to prepare it for reuse. This material is called urban or ecological wood and can be used to construct and manufacture furniture. In this way, they create a closed-cycle economy.

The initiative also has social benefits, namely by creating new workplaces. With over 600,000 people living in Baltimore City, the unemployment rate is 8.5%, which is 2.3% higher than the national rate of 6.2%.

In the post-industrial city of Baltimore, there are 16,000 vacant properties, nearly 4,000 of which will be demolished. The Baltimore Wood Project focuses on deconstruction rather than demolition, primarily because the first option creates six to eight more jobs than the second.

Wood represents roughly 10% of annual waste in the U.S. Sometimes, most of it comes from urban areas rather than national forests. Enterprises have to pay large sums for wood waste collection and disposal.