Waste wood gate fees must rise, wood recyclers warn

Speaking at a meeting of the Wood Recyclers Association last week, Geoff Hadfield said that the decreasing price of processed woodchip, low wood PRN prices and increasing operational costs were putting pressure on wood recyclers.

” Wood recyclers have to gear up to charge realistic gate fees because of the decreasing price for processed woodchip. “
– Geoff Hadfield, WRA
Mr Hadfield also blamed an oversupply of wood in the market place for the difficult situation, which has followed three of the UK's main board mills suffering down-time this month (see letsrecycle.com story).

He said: “Wood recyclers have to gear up to charge realistic gate fees because of the decreasing price for processed woodchip going to the board mills and other consumers, escalating operating and compliance costs and a huge oversupply of material in the market place.”

“Add to this mix the fact that wood PRN prices are at rock bottom and we have a situation where gate fees must rise as a result or companies will be going out of business,” the managing director of Hadfield Wood Recyclers in Manchester added.

Over-supply
Mr Hadfield explained that the market was being swamped with wood because councils were increasingly trying to divert biodegradable waste from landfill to meet targets under the landfill allowance trading scheme (LATS).

Next month's rise in the Landfill Tax from 21 to 24 per tonne and pressure on construction companies to find environmentally-friendly disposable methods for waste wood were also seen as drivers.

Mr Hadfield said: “Gate fees for waste wood have been too low for too long and as companies have just absorbed extra overheads. There needed to be a steady increase so it has come to a point where there will be casualties if nothing is done.”

Mr Hadfield recommended that the cost for delivering waste wood to a wood recycler should, depending on region and circumstance, be in the range of:

• Low grade material – 25-30/tonne
• Mixed grades – 20/tonne
• Clean softwood – 0-10/tonne

Code
Mr Hadfield also reported at the quarterly WRA meeting that the Wood Recyclers code of conduct was near completion.

WRA secretary Rick Wilcox said: “The aim of the code is to raise management and operating standards across the wood recycling sector. All WRA members companies have signed up to comply with the code, which will also be available for use by non-members.”

Mr Wilcox added that a protocol to give government and regulators confidence in the accuracy of wood packaging tonnages claimed by wood recyclers had been cleared with SEPA and the Environment Agency.

He said: “A wood packaging protocol complete with a packaging recognition training course will be launched shortly.”