Blog
“From Kitchen to Kettle” - the circular economy of waste wood
9 April 2025
Updated 27 August 2026
Fancy a cup of tea? How waste wood goes from kitchen to kettle
As builders dismantle your old kitchen, removing cabinets, countertops and shelves, its journey begins – though few of us ever think about what happens next.
In the past, your kitchen could end up in landfill, where organic material can generate greenhouse gas emissions as it decomposes. But there’s another option: the wood from your old kitchen could be helping power your next cup of tea.
The journey of waste wood to power
A circular economy keeps resources in use for longer, minimises waste and reduces environmental impact. Let’s take a behind-the-scenes look at how your old kitchen can be transformed into renewable energy.
From kitchen to waste wood
That kitchen you’ve had for years may already have been reused or recycled several times as other furniture. When it can no longer be recycled, the waste wood is taken to a specialist recycling site, where it is sorted by grade and condition.
Where it has no other viable use, waste wood can be recovered for energy, providing an alternative to landfill while making use of the energy contained within the material.
Shredding
Next, the waste wood is shredded into small, manageable chips.
From the recycling site, the material is transported to one of Evero’s biomass plants, where it passes through a front-end processing facility. Here, metals are removed and sent away for recycling before the wood enters the energy recovery process.
Combustion
The waste wood chips are combusted in either a gasifier or moving grate.
Producing heat that’s used to generate steam. This steam drives a turbine generator, converting thermal energy into electricity.
The electricity is then fed into the local grid and used to power homes, schools and businesses.
Across Evero’s portfolio, our facilities process hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste wood each year, generating renewable electricity for homes and businesses across the UK.
Fact: By removing impurities and optimising the syngas for combustion, Evero’s system allows for more effective integration of carbon capture technologies (BECCS), helping to further reduce emissions.
Emissions control and carbon capture
Burning waste wood produces carbon dioxide (CO₂), but the carbon contained in biomass is biogenic carbon – meaning it was originally absorbed from the atmosphere into our feedstock.
Evero is looking at how carbon capture can take this process a step further.
Our InBECCS project at Ince Bio Power in Cheshire will retrofit carbon capture technology onto the existing facility. The project is designed to capture up to 250,000 tonnes of CO₂ each year, which can then be transported and permanently stored through the HyNet carbon capture and storage network.
By combining energy recovery from waste wood with carbon capture and permanent storage, InBECCS has the potential to deliver both renewable power and carbon removals.
Back to the kitchen
“Fancy a cup of tea?”
New kitchen installed; you flick on your kettle.
The energy powering your kettle might just be coming from the very cabinets and countertops that once filled your home.
A circular process at its core
Evero’s process is an example of the circular economy in action. Instead of sending waste wood to landfill, the UK recovers it as a valuable resource.
And with projects such as InBECCS, we’re exploring how that process can go further – capturing biogenic CO₂ and permanently storing it to deliver greenhouse gas removals.
So, next time you make a cup of tea, remember – your old kitchen could be part of something bigger, helping turn waste into energy and supporting a cleaner, greener future.
Frequently asked questions
Can old kitchen cabinets be recycled?
- Some waste wood can be reused or recycled, but coatings, adhesives and treatments can make certain wood unsuitable for conventional recycling. Where there is no viable alternative use, energy recovery can provide another route.
What is combustion?
- Combustion is the process of burning the syngas produced from waste wood to release heat. This heat is used to generate steam, which drives a turbine to produce electricity.
What is BECCS?
- BECCS stands for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. It combines bioenergy with carbon capture and permanent storage. When biogenic CO₂ is captured and permanently stored, BECCS can result in the net removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere.
