Wood and Wood Products

Wood and wood products have played a critical role in the evolution of humankind. From the most primitive of beginnings, humans have used wood for survival and to improve the quality of life. In the twenty-first century, people continue to use wood for many of the same purposes that their most ancient ancestors did. Fuel for heating and cooking is still the largest consumer of wood fiber. Construction of shelter and furniture is secondary as is pulp and paper production. As a raw material, nothing else in history possesses the versatility of timber. On a volumetric basis, in the year 2000 worldwide annual consumption was between 3 and 4 billion cubic meters. To put this in perspective, if all of this wood was lashed together it could make a floating bridge 2 meters (6.54 feet) thick and 40 meters (131 feet) wide that stretches around the world at the equator. As evidence of wood's exceptional utility value, there are approximately 5,000 distinctly different types and applications of wood products in society. As a raw material, wood has no equal peers. On a strength-to-weight ratio, wood is stronger than steel. Heavy timber has unique thermal insulating properties, which often allow it to retain structural integrity during building and warehouse fires that completely soften and deform structural steel members. While concrete has excellent structural properties, its density is so high that it is often ruled out as a building material. High shipping and handling costs associated with concrete limit its use to areas close in proximity to the raw mineral mines. Petrochemical-based plastics offer new alternatives to wood use in construction but such plastics are not renewable. The energy requirements and pollution volumes associated with the production of each of these products is significantly higher than those levels associated with wood products conversion, often four to ten times greater. Additionally, of the materials concrete, plastic, steel, and wood, only wood is naturally renewable.

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