Agency ‘shares frustration’ over Wood QP

But, speaking at the Wood Recyclers Association conference last week (November 1), Mat Crocker said that change is never easy and that progress is being made despite a few bumps in the road.

The protocol is being developed by the Agency to define the point at which waste wood is no longer classed as a waste. This is important because once material loses the waste label, it is free of waste legislation and waste stigma and becomes easier to market.

Initially attempted in 2006 but dropped due to a lack of data, the project rekindled in 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story) and a draft protocol published for consultation in March 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).

But, many wood recyclers have expressed concerns over the draft particularly because it only includes wood which is used in landscaping and to make panel board with other uses, such as biomass fuel and animal bedding, excluded due to a lack of data and industry standards (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on the process, Mr Crocker said: It is a journey and it is not always easy because your experience with the Quality Protocol is probably a bit frustrated I share that. But the Quality Protocol Approach is a change project and change is difficult.

With the QP and with others there has been some sticking points and bumps in the road that we are getting to grips with.

Animal bedding

Mr Crocker explained that, since the draft QP was put out for consultation, the Agency was considering the case for including animal bedding within the scope of the protocol and also looking at testing methods for determining how waste wood used in landscaping should be tested, in order to quality as being a non-waste.

He said: One regarding animal bedding we are trying to get to grips with and the whole question of what is and what is not treated wood as the number of contaminants potentially in wood are large and we need new ways of testing the impact of that material when we use it on the ground.

Development

Keith Froud, senior advisor at the Environment Agency, who is currently working on the development of the Wood Quality Protocol, told letsercycle.com that the reason animal bedding had not been included in the draft protocol was because of concerns over how wood treatments may affect animal health.

He explained that the Agency has intended to carry out sampling of animal bedding made from waste wood to identify contaminants but it was decided that this would not be useful because, even if they were identified, there was no information available on how they could affect animal health. So, instead he said the Agency is carrying out work to see if animal bedding made of certain types of cleaner waste wood could be included in the protocol, adding that work is ongoing.

With regards to waste wood used in landscaping for uses such as mulches, Mr Froud explained that the draft QP required this to be tested for 15 contaminants to ensure it was not an environmental risk but that the test which was originally proposed was not adequate and so new test methods needed to be developed.

We are currently going through the procurement process to get labs to develop new testing methods, he said.

Mr Froud added that once the Agency had a protocol it was happy with, it would have to notify Europe in a process which would take three to six months.

He said: We are looking at hopefully the second half of next year for the final Wood Quality Protocol to be published, but of course there are some uncertainties with the timescale.