Hansol Homedeco (CEO Kim Kyung-rok), a company specializing in eco-friendly interior and building materials, has launched ‘Hansol Recycle MDF,’ the world's first MDF made with 100% recycled raw materials.
MDF is a panel board made by molding cellulose fibers extracted from wood materials together with adhesives under high temperature and high pressure. The cellulose fibers are extracted mainly from logs as well as from recycled raw materials such as some recycled chips and waste wood. As of 2021, total domestic log consumption was approximately 7 million ㎥, of which 18%, or 1.25 million ㎥, was used to produce MDF. The average share of recycled raw materials among domestic MDF manufacturers is 35%, and even in Europe—the birthplace of MDF—around 50% is considered top-tier. By contrast, Hansol Homedeco's use of recycled raw materials exceeds 70%. As a result, the company is saving more than 1.4 million trees every year.
The newly launched ‘Recycle MDF’ uses 100% pure recycled raw materials without cutting down a single tree, and can be regarded as a remarkable achievement not only domestically but also globally, in that it uses resources efficiently and considers the global environment. In Europe, environmental regulations on eco-friendliness and resource recycling are far stricter than in Korea. A carbon tax—a system that imposes and collects a carbon price based on carbon content when products manufactured in countries with weaker environmental regulations are imported—has been enacted, and will officially take effect from January 2026. Accordingly, major European MDF manufacturers are visiting and touring Hansol Homedeco's MDF plant, making it a leading example of the use of recycled raw materials.
The reason Hansol Homedeco has been able to produce ‘Recycle MDF’ is that it began considering resource recycling from the time it established its MDF plant in 1995. At that time, all MDF equipment consisted of a single layer without any layer distinction, but Hansol Homedeco was the first in Korea to introduce equipment with a three-layer structure consisting of surface layer–core layer–surface layer. This equipment structure separates raw materials into two streams by using log cellulose fibers for the surface layers, where surface quality is important, and recycled raw materials for the core layer, which is less affected by surface processing.
The recycled wood raw materials used to produce MDF are mixed with various types of foreign matter and impurities, so they inevitably suffer from low economic efficiency, productivity, and quality. To solve these problems, Hansol Homedeco has, since 2016, accumulated technology and know-how for adjusting the temperature, pressure, speed, and other factors to suit the physical properties of the raw materials through recycled-material sorting equipment and research, and has gradually expanded the use of recycled raw materials all the way to the surface layer. Through such years of investment and technology development for resource recycling, it has launched ‘Hansol Recycle MDF,’ which uses only recycled raw materials completely, right down to the surface layer.
‘Hansol Recycle MDF’ is currently used for packaging pallets, interior materials, and wooden bobbins, and the company plans to expand its applications through continuous technology development and improvements in surface quality.
In addition, in June, ‘Recycle MDF’ became the first MDF product to obtain ‘GR (Good Recycled) certification.’ GR certification is a government certification granted to high-quality, eco-friendly recycled products; it is awarded by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards to superior recycled products whose quality has been improved, following testing, analysis, and evaluation of recycled products manufactured in Korea.
A Hansol Homedeco official said, “As the trend in the building materials market is expanding from reducing hazardous substances to resource circulation, demand for ‘Recycle MDF’ is expected to keep growing in both domestic and overseas markets,” adding, “We will continue to present sustainable products that support resource circulation, thereby leading ESG management in Korea's interior industry.”
Meanwhile, in addition to developing products through expanded use of recycled raw materials, Hansol Homedeco has been proactively practicing ESG management in ways suited to its own values and vision for the past 20 years, including △responding to climate change and securing carbon credits through overseas afforestation and stably securing forest resources, △biomass renewable energy generation, and △improving the energy efficiency of its plants. 080-777-2299
▲Hansol Recycle MDF
▲Hansol Homedeco recycled raw materials
▲View of the Hansol Homedeco MDF plant