Isle of Wight commercial waste contractors have been informed over the last week that from the end of August they will no longer be able to accept certain types of waste wood that previously wasn’t a problem.
Waste transfer sites have been informing contractors about the withdrawal of the Environment Agency’s Regulatory Position Statement (RPS) 250 — concerning the acceptance of waste woods that may be hazardous.
Change to regulations
Implemented in July 2021, Regulatory Position Statement (RPS) 250 has been permitting the transfer and processing of potentially dangerous ‘amber’ waste wood materials from the construction and demolition industry as non-hazardous.
As of 1st September 2023, the Environment Agency has officially announced that this will be withdrawn. As a result, certain items originating from buildings constructed prior to 2007 will be automatically deemed hazardous, prohibiting their dispatch to wood recycling facilities.
These include:
- barge boards
- external fascias
- external soffit boards
- external joinery (wooden windows and conservatories)
- external doors
- roof timbers
- tiling and cladding battens
- timber frames and joists
Test certificate required
Items on the above list can be accepted by waste transfer stations if a test certificate is presented at the time of disposal confirming that there is no hazardous material present in the waste.
News OnTheWight understands there will be just two locations on the Mainland that will accept the ‘hazardous’ wood waste, one in Wales and another in Milton Keynes. This is causing great concern for the Island’s small commercial waste contractors.
Rising costs
One waste contractor told News OnTheWight they feared there would be a knock-on effect on the cost of disposing of non-hazardous wood, as any wood being disposed of at waste transfer stations would need to be thoroughly checked.
Impact on domestic recycling
This new rule will not have an impact on domestic recycling of waste wood. An Isle of Wight council spokesperson told News OnTheWight,
“The regulatory change does not apply to facilities operated in the council waste contract for household waste items. We will not stop taking the wood waste from the 1st of September.
“We already have the waste codes on the respective waste management permits, which allows us to take the hazardous wood waste at both the household waste recycling centre and the commercial waste recycling centre.
“The expiry of regulatory position statement only applies to those operators who do not have it on their list of waste within their permit and wished to include it.”
No change to previously unacceptable waste
There is no change to previously unacceptable waste (waste wood from hydraulic engineering (such as wood from docks), waste wood from industrial applications such as cooling towers, woodblock flooring, or moulds, waste wood from boats, carriages and trailer beds, agricultural fencing, telegraph poles, railway sleepers and other items obviously treated with creosote or CCA).
Image: alexander schimmeck Image: big-dodzy under CC BY 2.0
