Defra consults on banning waste wood from landfill

The government has today (July 31) launched a consultation seeking views from wood recyclers on a potential ban on sending waste wood to landfill.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has asked stakeholders to provide views on the merits of adopting a restriction on waste wood to landfill and to state what the barriers to the approach are. The request comes in a document entitled: Wood waste landfill restrictions in England Call for evidence.

Industry and others are also being asked to assess what an appropriate timescale for introducing a ban would be, and what new infrastructure will be necessary to implement the policy.

The consultation will run until September 28.

A Defra spokesman said: The call for evidence will help us determine if a restriction on sending wood waste to landfill is the best way of reducing the one million tonnes that are currently thrown away.

“We are looking for information on how wood waste is currently dealt with, ways to reduce the amount going to landfill, and other markets for wood waste. The responses we receive over the next 8 weeks will be used to draw up options to reduce wood waste that benefit both the economy and the environment.

According to Defra the aim of a ban would be to divert material which is currently sent to landfill up the waste hierarchy and to deliver clear environmental benefits. The department states that around 4.3 million tonnes of waste wood arises in the UK each year but only half of this is currently recycled, with between 800,000 and 1.2 million tonnes still sent to landfill.

Waste Hierarchy

In notes accompanying the call for evidence, Defra stated: Government policy follows the waste hierarchy. Landfill is at the bottom, with waste prevention (including re-use) the preferred option, followed by preparation for re-use, recycling and other types of recovery (including energy recovery).

It has been argued that landfill restrictions would help stimulate the development of alternative waste management infrastructure and generate market certainty around availability of materials. New measures to restrict the landfilling of wood waste may help to generate a reliable source of sufficient material to drive the market forward for recycling or energy recovery options.

The suggestion of a ban on sending waste wood to landfill comes at a time when the waste wood market is under some pressure. Only last week one of the UKs key waste wood users, chipboard manufacturer Sonae, began consulting on the future of its factory in Knowsley, Merseyside, which recycles around 400,000 tonnes of waste woodchip a year (see letsrecycle.com story).

Demand

The Sonae mill has been running at reduced capacity since a fire at the site in June 2011, and Defra acknowledges that downtime at the plant contributed to a fall in consumption of as much as 15% last year.

And, despite Defras assertion that export markets for material are growing, wood recyclers in South East England reported last month that they had been forced to turn away material because of a mild European winter which saw less waste wood exported to Sweden, one of the UKs primary export markets for wood burned in biomass heaters (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, Defra in its consultation document considers that demand for material will grow, as the number of waste-fed biomass heaters in the UK increases aided by subsidies for renewable energy generation. The department estimates that the capacity of wood-fed biomass facilities in the UK currently in planning is around 20 million tonnes, although it acknowledges that some of these will not be developed.