Today we talk to Ben Patton of TreeCycle, a Vancouver-based company focused on helping construction companies use more repurposed wood. While working as an arborist, Ben noticed that 90% of the wood he dealt with was either turned into firewood or wood chips or just thrown in a pile. He found himself wondering why more of this wood wasn’t being used as lumber. One day he dragged a log behind his van and milled it down himself in order to make a coffee table. This experience and these concerns drove Ben to find some partners and start a company to facilitate the recycling and reuse of wood waste from construction sites. TreeCycle now recovers wood from demolition projects and repurposes it into structured lumbers, dimensional lumbers, raw timbers, siding, and more. Sometimes Ben’s company handles the process directly, and sometimes they consult with companies who want to handle the process themselves. In those cases, TreeCycle will coordinate site-source separation, clean up the wood, categorize the boards by size and type, and store them for future use. We explore the financial aspect of reclamation and recycling. An increasing number of customers are willing to invest in reducing their environmental and climate impact. To be sure, this requires some extra time, effort, and money. The cost can be reduced, however, with careful planning. TreeCycle aims to offset the time and expense by saving companies money on lumber. We discuss how the 2021 spike in lumber prices added some momentum to their operation. Then Ben mentions a few specific products that his company produces:
