According to figures from DEFRA, the amount of recycling of wood packaging has more than doubled since last year. But, some wood recyclers consider there are no signs that the actual amount of wood packaging recycling has doubled in that period.
One wood recycler said: “According to the PRNs, there's been a huge growth in wood recycling – but actually there hasn't, really. The market hasn't grown that much, there are still the same board mills taking the same amount of wood.”
A lot of wood being recycled in the UK is not classified as packaging, so does not qualify for the lucrative PRN cash injections. The main source of wood that does classify as packaging is wooden pallets, but wood from construction sites and household DIY and wood scraps from sawmills don't count.
But sources from both wood recycling companies and compliance schemes have said that it can be hard to be certain that the material that a company has promised as packaging is what it is claimed to be. This has meant that any figures concerning wood packaging are considered by some in the trade as less than accurate. DEFRA's figures are that 670,000 tonnes of wood packaging was recycled from 2001-2, but obligated companies have claimed a total of 800,000 tonnes and one compliance scheme has told letsrecycle.com it was no more than 570,000.
“We need better controls and stronger inspection,” the compliance scheme source said. “If the figure doubles again next year, though, people will know there is a problem.”
In contrast to these views, board mills are believed to be taking in much higher volumes of recycled material following investment in new machinery. This means that there is an increase in the volume of wood PRNs and so the concerns of wood recyclers could be unjustified.
Established
PRNs can only be issued by companies that actually turn a waste material into a new product, but it isn't just board makers that are able to do this. A growing side of the industry is seeing small wood shredding firms becoming able to issue their own PRNs by turning their end product into animal bedding, cover chip for landscape gardening and other products.
Established wood recyclers feel that many new recycling outfits are using the money they get from their PRNs to boost their collection activities rather than investing it into furthering the recycling aspect of their trade which would help the UK meet higher targets.
“They're selling their material at premium prices to landscape gardeners, so the PRN money shouldn't be going into their wood collection,” one wood recycler said.
Subscribe for free