Waste Wood Changes to Regulation
Disposing of waste wood from older buildings?
From the 1 September 2023, the Environment Agency will withdraw regulatory position statement (RPS) 250 which applies to hazardous waste wood removed from domestic premises, demolition sites and other buildings built before 2007.
What is affected
Hazardous wood is any wood prior to 2007 that has been treated with creosote or other preservative, or paint including varnish or stain. According to the Wood Recyclers’ Association hazardous wood from this period accounts for less than 1% of all construction and demolition timber.
This statement effectively provided an exemption for wood processors and transfer stations to mix hazardous wood with non hazardous wood and to process them together. The purpose being to allow sufficient time for the industry to understand the quantities and types of hazardous waste wood arising from demolition and refurbishment activities and apply for a permit variation to accept hazardous waste wood if there was a market and business need.
This withdrawal means processors and recyclers of waste wood must revert to the current law and will change the way hazardous waste wood is both transferred and processed as it will fall under hazardous wase regulations.
Examples of this might include timber windows and doors, soffits, bargeboards, roof timbers and joists:
What this means for you
Only a very small fraction of wood is affected but if you are undertaking refurbishment or demolition work and disposing of waste wood from older buildings then you need to be aware of this. Hazardous waste disposal requires a different route and the hazardous wood cannot be mixed in with other general waste. Hazardous wood will require its own container and hazardous waste incineration.
As you might imagine there are many fewer facilities available for the disposal of hazardous material as opposed to non hazardous wood.
If you believe that you may be impacted by this change in regulation do please get in touch with us at Red Kite Recycling and we can help you with your site waste plan. Managing construction waste is one of our services.
Telephone : 0333 8803358
Email : Jolyon.Roe@RedKiteRecycling.com
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