burning recycled wood threatens UK jobs
A new report from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), says that recycling companies are cutting their gate prices to attract waste wood from the construction sector to sell it on to the woody biomass industry.
Subsidies for generating electricity using biomass are distorting the domestic wood market. Energy companies, supported by the Renewables Obligation (RO), are using their enhanced purchasing power to bid for the same recycled wood used by the wood panel industry.
The report also found there has been a significant increase in demand for waste wood to be used as fuel, with UK biomass facilities’ demand for recovered wood more than doubling between 2007 and 2010 to reach 0.55 million tonnes – nearly a quarter of total recovered wood demand!
WRAP has predicted gate fees will continue to fall in line with growth in the biomass market. A recent report from John Clegg Consulting suggests that demand for recovered wood from biomass plants could rise to more than four million tonnes by 2015, which is more than the UK’s entire supply of waste wood.
It is more evidence that if this situation does not change the future of the wood panel industry and wood-based manufacturing in Britain is threatened because they cannot compete in the same market as the energy companies, who are being subsidised to buy wood.
Read the full story at businessGreen…
Wood Perfected 