The Wood Recyclers’ Association has welcomed changes to the waste exemptions regime for England and Wales announced last week (February 6) by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
For wood, the changes include new exemption conditions for the sorting, chipping, shredding, compacting, cutting and storage of waste wood and waste plant matter, including limiting the total quantity of waste accepted to less than 5,000 tonnes per year.
Other conditions include a maximum acceptance of 100 tonnes per week, storage up to three months and a maximum pile height of 4 metres.
WRA Executive Director, Julia Turner, said: “We welcome these moves to reduce crime and poor performance at waste sites. This will make it much more difficult for waste criminals to take advantage of the light touch regulation associated with the exemptions regime and help to drive up operating standards.”
For more details on the new conditions for wood, see Annex 3 here.