been emphasized in these procurement guidelines until recently. Increased recycling of

C&D waste promises to "close the loop" of material procurement and reuse by increasing

the amount of materials available (Dolan et al. 1999).

How are Virgin Trees Turned Into Usable Wood?

* The life cycle of timber products includes the following stages:

* Growing timber

* Harvesting timber/cutting it down

* Processing/making it into a useable product

* Installation into a building

* Maintaining, preserving, painting

* Replacement

* Disposal via landfill, incinerator/burning or recycling

* Transport at each stage

 Virgin Wood Processes

Harvesting

 Timber used for the construction of new houses and the renovation of old houses

all comes from one source-trees. The harvesting of trees occurs in three stages: the

felling and bunching of trees, the movement of the trees from the forest to the site where

they are loaded on the truck and the loading of the trees onto the truck (Long 2003).

 A feller buncher is used in the first stage (felling and bunching of trees). The feller

buncher cuts down a group of trees using a saw blade that is located on the bottom of the

feller buncher between two clamps. There are also two more sets of clamps located

above the saw blade. All three sets of clamps are brought together at the same time. As