Adding value to harvested materials

Circular building materials

A major contributor to the circularity in Leeuwarden's renovated city hall is Miedema Bouwmaterialen. It manages to obtain batches of used wood that it prepares for reuse in construction. Among other things, 5,000 m¹ of ceiling cladding and 100 m¹ of window frame wood are made entirely from residual wood. 

Miedema Bouwmaterialen is one of Lont's regular partners and a leading supplier of sustainable building materials. "From a residual stream of modified spruce wood, we were able to produce 5,000 m¹ of FSC-certified ceiling cladding for the town hall," Theo van Dijk, commercial manager of Miedema Bouwmaterialen, proudly explains. "And through a demolition company we sourced old spruce beams, good for 100 m¹ of frame wood." 

Adding value

Because Miedema Bouwmaterialen has long been active in the extraction and processing of used building materials, it now has everything in-house to make the "harvested" building materials suitable for reuse. Planing, sawing, (re)processing and storage take place in the company's own machining facility in Leeuwarden up to the manufacture of circular products that look like new. "Instead of taking the building materials to demolition, we actually add
value to it."

Additional charms

Van Dijk realizes that sometimes this takes some getting used to. Similarly, the columns in Leeuwarden's city hall were produced from scrap wood. Although this wood has been planed and iron-free, the screw and nail holes are still clearly visible. Van Dijk: "In my experience, these unevennesses actually add to the charm, but I understand if people see it differently." 

Sharing knowledge

To support building professionals from throughout the chain in sustainability, Miedema Bouwmaterialen organizes knowledge sessions on circular building. "Gathering and sharing knowledge about circular building is important to us. Only together do you complete the circular chain." Miedema's specialty within circular building materials are biobased building materials, materials that are renewable in nature by themselves.