‘Toolkit’ launched for wood recyclers as hazardous RPS to end

‘RPS 250’ currently allows potentially hazardous ‘amber’ waste wood items from the construction and demolition waste stream to be moved and processed as non-hazardous while testing has been carried out.

From 1 September 2023 this will be withdrawn, which means that certain kinds of potentially hazardous waste wood from pre-2007 buildings, which can currently be sent for recycling or recovery under the RPS, will no longer be accepted at wood recycling sites. These will only be accepted if tested to show they are not hazardous by being sent off for a simple test.

The ten potentially hazardous items from pre-2007 buildings are: Barge boards; external fascia; soffit boards; external joinery; external doors; roof timber; tiling cladding; tiling battens; timber frames and timber joists.

The WRA has estimated through its sampling work that the estimated hazardous content of waste wood from C&D activities is less than 1%, representing an insignificant proportion (0.08%) of total UK waste wood arisings, approximately 4,000 tonnes.

‘Delighted’

Vicki Hughes, technical lead on the WRA Board, said: “We are delighted to be launching this toolkit to help our members prepare for the withdrawal of RPS 250 in September.

“The Environment Agency has said it will be checking the protocols of sites accepting waste wood, so it is important that operators understand what changes they need to make.

“There are only three months to go so we urge wood recyclers and their suppliers to start looking at what they need to do now.”

Toolkit

The association’s toolkit includes a step-by-step checklist of what wood recyclers need to do and a printable poster/visual guide to help operatives identify what materials can no longer be processed unless tested and proved non-hazardous.

• A sample acceptable materials guide, to help companies update their own acceptance criteria
• An updated WRA wood grading system, to show which materials are now deemed hazardous.
• A training video explaining the changes and the steps wood recycling businesses need to take (COMING SOON)

Campaign

Wood recyclers are being advised to communicate the upcoming change to customers, to train their staff to recognise this material, to make sure their quarantine processes for hazardous material are up to date and to ensure that none is accepted onto their sites.

Vicki Hughes, technical lead on the WRA board, said: “We are delighted to be launching this toolkit to help our members prepare for the withdrawal of RPS 250 in September.

“The Environment Agency has said it will be checking the protocols of sites accepting waste wood, so it is important that operators understand what changes they need to make. There are only three months to go so we urge wood recyclers and their suppliers to start looking at what they need to do now.”

Classification

The announcement comes after five years of work by the WRA under its Waste Wood Classification Project, during which it successfully reduced the number of items subject to this change from hundreds, with all the costs associated with them, to just ten, all from pre-2007 buildings.

The WRA is now calling for all those handling demolition waste wood to carry out “as many tests as possible on the remaining items before September to help reduce this list further”.

Ms Hughes explained: “Testing is vital if we are to remove more of these items from the list and ensure as much material is recycled or recovered as possible. However, it is important that those who do send samples off for testing carefully follow WRA guidance and grant permission, on an anonymous basis, for us to access and analyse the results.”

She added: “RPS250 only applies in England, but the other three UK environmental regulators have similar positions in place in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. SEPA in Scotland have confirmed that their guidance will also change to follow the same principles and although NRW in Wales and NIEA in Northern Ireland haven’t confirmed what changes will take place there, wood processors will need to follow the same guidelines across the UK as waste wood moves across borders so acceptance criteria will need to be updated UK-wide.”