Andy Hill, chairman of the Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA) says gone are the days when waste wood recycling was an emerging industry as he reviews of recent developments in wood waste.
It never fails to amaze me just how fast things can change in our sector. Gone are the days when waste wood recycling was an emerging industry quietly growing in the background, developing new products and routes to markets while increasingly diverting a waste stream from landfill.
There is not much that is quiet about waste wood today. Over the past five years we have seen unprecedented growth and changes to legislation, guidance and processes altering the shape of our industry as we knew it. Indeed, the next 12 months will be no different as we wait for several more large scale IED WID compliant biomass plants to enter commercial operations, demanding in excess of an additional 1 million tonnes of waste wood biomass fuel per year.
Given we estimate that the UK produces approximately 5 million tonnes of raw waste wood a year these new plants will be a game changer, generating sufficient industrial and commercial demand to ensure the UK no longer requires to landfill waste wood, a real success.
We believe the EA is approving more FPPs for wood recyclers and better understands the challenges our sector is facing in trying to meet the demands of an industry striving to help the UK meet its renewable energy and landfill reduction targets.
Considering our 2017 review of waste wood usage, then the effect of the increasing biomass market is clearly evident: its demand rose to 1.7 million tonnes in 2017 compared to 1.4 during 2016. In the main this increase was offset by a fall of approximately 300,000 tonnes in waste wood exports which stood at 300,000 tonnes in 2017 compared to 600,000 in 2016.
There was also a year-on-year growth of 38% within the panel board sector for WRA members. Total UK panel board usage in 2017 rose to 924,000 tonnes. Further re-use routes such as landscaping, animal bedding and the equestrian surfaces markets produced a total re-use volume of an additional 1.7 million tonnes during 2017 which is fantastic for our economy and environment.
As we move well into summer 2018, wood recyclers are once again concerned that the annual seasonal impact of increased waste wood being produced over the summer months will cause potential storage issues for them.
From the WRA’s perspective, we have recently met with the new senior adviser at the EA who is responsible for FPPs and who will continue to work with us to produce our waste wood FPP template. Once published, this will enable wood recyclers to stand a better chance of gaining Fire Prevention Plans at first attempt.
We believe the EA is approving more FPPs for wood recyclers and better understands the challenges our sector is facing in trying to meet the demands of an industry striving to help the UK meet its renewable energy and landfill reduction targets.
However, FPPs and growing UK waste wood demands are not the only issues we are facing. Defra has recently launched a clean air strategy consultation which raises other and new issues for our sector, namely the burning of wood in the domestic setting.
The consultation runs until 14 August and the WRA will be submitting a response before the deadline. One of the concerns we will be raising is the confusion being caused by some reports which link the burning of wood domestically versus commercially compliant biomass.
Headlines stating that burning wood causes pollutants damaging to health are not only unhelpful but quite clearly also inaccurate.
It is crucial that these issues are properly understood and ironed out before decisions are made or headlines written.
For the WRA the message is clear: Chapter IV IED WID compliant biomass boilers are licensed to burn post-consumer waste wood that has been properly processed to an exact specification. These boilers are regulated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They possess flue gas abatement technology which ensures their emissions are within strict tolerances thus protecting the air we breathe.
On the opposite side of the coin are the domestic boilers and log burners and for the WRA we maintain our position that only clean, untreated pre-consumer waste wood or suitably dried virgin wood should be burnt in these. In addition, we would advise that wood should only be burnt in modern burners or boilers and that flues are cleaned out regularly. These simple steps should surely allow those who want to enjoy a domestic wood burner to do so.
Understanding the differences may seem simple to those of us working in the industry but to the public at large it isn’t, and there is a real danger that the burning of wood will become synonymous with air pollutants if we don’t publicly clarify the difference now.
Acting responsibly, wood can be burnt safely domestically and commercially. Furthermore, the large scale compliant biomass plants will help to power approximately 800,000 UK households, once those currently in their build and commissioning phases come on line in the next six to 12 months.
