In recent years, the development of appropriate wood waste disposal options has been encouraged by severe regulations and expensive fees associated with wastes landfilling or burning. An efficient and economically attractive leaching process was developed at laboratory scale (200 mL) for CCA-, ACQ- and CA-treated wood wastes recycling. This leaching process consisted of three leaching steps of 2 hours each, at 75°C with a sulfuric acid concentration at 9.8 g/L followed by three water-rinsing steps. The objective of this study was to investigate a possible application of this process to various mixtures of copper-based preservatives-treated wood wastes at pilot scale (80 L). The mixture of copper-based preservative-treated wood wastes was defined in order to represent wood waste stream evolution in the next decades. At the end of the leaching process, more than 98% of arsenic, 89% of chromium and 99% of copper were removed from a mixture of treated wood. Metal concentrations of the effluents produced during leaching steps were higher than regulations for effluents discharge in urban sewer. Leachate treatment by precipitation-coagulation was highly efficient and achieved more than 98% metal removal. The remaining arsenic, chromium and copper concentrations of the final effluents satisfied Quebec City municipal effluent discharge regulations. Chemicals consumption (sulfuric acid, ferric chloride, sodium hydroxide) depends of the mixture composition of treated wood. Remediation costs (total direct, indirect and general costs) ranged from $140 to $180 per metric ton of treated wood (ttw) depending on percentage of CCA-treated wood in the mixture. The use of wood residue for energy production represents an operating income estimated at $155/ttw (considering an energetic value of $13 per GJ).

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