A standard designed to create more consistency in the way waste wood is accepted, graded and processed has been launched for consultation.
The draft PAS 111 establishes a minimum set of criteria and processing requirements which wood recyclers should meet if they are to sell their products to secondary markets. These markets include panelboard manufacture; biomass energy generation; animal bedding; mulches and soil conditioners; equine surfaces; and, pathways and coverings.
At present, acceptance criteria often varies from customer to customer and a lack of uniformity is seen as a barrier.
The PAS is the first standard of its kind for recovered wood and, while also increasing confidence, it provides a minimum quality-controlled production process which can be used by industry so that the output of material from wood recyclers contains no more than an acceptable level of contaminants, thereby limiting the risk to the environment.
In this respect the draft PAS marks an important step towards producing a Quality Protocol for untreated waste wood, which would define the point at which this material ceases to be a waste and is importantly free from waste legislation (see letsrecycle.com story).
Difference
Bhavisha Patel, project manager at the BSI who has helped to develop the standard, said: “We hope it will make a big difference. We have got key players on the steering group who are supporting this and publishing it.”
The PAS is open for consultation until January 31, after which any feedback will be discussed by the steering group. A final version is due to be published by March 31 on the website of the Waste & Resources Action Programme – which has sponsored its development.
The steering group includes representatives from the Association for Organics Recycling; Wood Recyclers' Association; Wood Panel Industries Federation; Wood Protection Association; Timber Research and Development Association; Sembcorp Utilities (UK); SITA Power; National Farmers' Union; Hadfield Wood Recyclers, Fichtner Consulting Engineers Ltd; Consulting With Purpose; AW Jenkinson Forest Products; and, the Environment Agency.
The PAS will be reviewed every two years.
WRA
Commenting on the draft PAS, Peter Butt, secretary of the Wood Recyclers' Association, said that he was very pleased with progress to date.
He commented:”The WRA are delighted that the PAS111 process, which stalled in the latter part of 2010, is now airborne again. We are generally pleased with the overall shape and content of the latest draft PAS which BSI have produced; it is a major improvement on its predecessor. There are still a number of issues to address, of course, and time is very tight indeed if we are to complete the project within the funding period. But everyone is working flat out to get it done.”
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