Industry guidance on how to handle and process items of wood waste has been published, after a four-year project led by the Wood Recyclers Association (WRA).
Over 3.81 million tonnes of waste wood was processed in 2020 with 2.42 million tonnes going to Chapter IV biomass, 982 k tonnes going to panel board manufacture, 350 k tonnes into animal bedding, equine surfacing, reuse and other recycling, and 55 k tonnes going into small-scale biomass.
The new guidance will help waste producers and operators to understand and follow procedures to ensure the correct waste wood ends up in the right end market.
Regulatory Position Statements
The guidance should be used to help operators follow the correct procedures set out in two new Regulatory Position Statements (RPS).
The RPSs mean that mixed loads of waste wood in England can continue to be processed by operators for use in panel board manufacturing and Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EC (IED) Chapter IV compliant biomass boilers.
Regulators in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to announce their final positions on this work shortly.
RPS 249: Receiving hazardous waste wood at household waste recycling centres
RPS 249 allows potentially hazardous waste wood received at household waste recycling centres to move as un-assessed, non-hazardous material as long as it is destined for Chapter IV compliant biomass or the manufacture of panel board.
This RPS will remain in place until the end of March 2024 to give the waste wood industry time to demonstrate that there is no longer any hazardous content in household waste wood.
RPS 250: Hazardous waste wood from demolition and refurbishment activities
RPS 250 covers hazardous waste wood from demolition and refurbishment activities. This now requires all waste wood from construction and demolition sites to be assessed, and where deemed hazardous, consigned as hazardous waste using a hazardous waste consignment note with the correct waste codes. However it also allows for the collection, storage, processing and blending of potentially hazardous waste wood from domestic premises, demolition sites and other business premises, to be carried out under existing environmental permits.
This RPS will remain in place until the end of August 2023.
What happens next?
For both waste streams further testing will now continue to be carried out until there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate what, if any items, continue to be hazardous.
If hazardous material is still in the waste stream after the RPSs have expired, those that wish to handle it will need to apply for a permit variation to accept hazardous material.
Under RPS 250, it is the responsibility of the waste handler (contractor/skip operator/waste transfer station etc) to assess, segregate and consign the wood before passing it to a wood recycler/reprocessor. If they assess it against the guidance and think it may be hazardous they either have to get it tested to WM3 standards or move it under a hazardous code.
Where segregation is not possible, RPS 250 also allows transfer stations and skip operators to move it as mixed waste wood to a non-hazardous processing facility. If they do this, it is also their responsibility to estimate the percentage of hazardous waste wood in the load and to record it on the consignment note before transferring it to the wood recycler/reprocessor.
Waste wood recyclers/reprocessors can receive hazardous and non-hazardous waste wood under the two RPSs and can then process it and blend both materials to be sent to the two approved outlets (Chapter IV biomass and panel board manufacture) under a non-hazardous waste note.
Crucially in this context, hazardous wood does not include the traditional hazardous waste wood items such as telegraph poles and railway sleepers.
These will continue to be classified as hazardous material (Grade D) and need to be sent to specialist hazardous outlets. A full list of these items is contained in the guidance documents.
For more information, see:
