Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Teo Rhe recalls the shock on people’s faces when they learn that his bench isn’t made out of wood.

Back some 30 years ago, I read that most of the wood ash produced in Canada for power and recovery boilers went to landfills, with less than three per cent for cropland application. Even today only 37 ...