NFRC Was Alerted to Waste Wood Problem Five Months Before Rule Change

NFRC WAS ALERTED to the waste wood problem five months before the rule change, the Wood Recyclers Association has confirmed.

The Wood Recyclers Association (WRA) said it gave a presentation in London to the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) on the 26 April, 2023 – five months before the rule change which reclassified common roofing waste materials as hazardous.

The waste wood rule change on 1 September 2023 reclassifies 10 softwood materials from 1950-2007 buildings as hazardous waste.

Waste Wood Problem

It means that roofing contractors are now reporting problems such as being refused skips. Other contractors say they are facing surcharges of up to £250 on jobs they quoted for months ago, meaning they can’t pass the costs on. Some have expressed fears that the increased costs of disposing of waste wood will mean more fly tipping or burning of the potentially hazardous materials.

The ten wood materials are: barge boards, external fascia, soffit boards, roof timber, cladding battens, ‘tiling’ battens, timber frames, external joinery, external doors and timber joists.

Seven out of these ten items are typically found in waste from a roofing refurbishment, affecting most roofing contractors that work in the domestic sector, social housing, retrofit, pitched commercial work and some flat roofing and cladding.

Gathering Evidence

The WRA has explained how the roofing industry could have worked with them to gather evidence to show the waste wood is not hazardous ahead of the 1 September rule change, potentially avoiding any impact at all on roofing contractors.

Vicki Hughes, Technical Lead on the WRA board said, “It’s very frustrating. We have been trying to alert everyone that we knew would be affected by the rule change for a long time now.

“That’s why we were delighted when NFRC approached us to ask if we would give a presentation to them. Our CEO, Julia Turner explained that the WRA could help to head off the problem if the NFRC’s members submitted samples of the seven wood types so that we could gather a body of evidence on them and hopefully prove they are non-hazardous and avoid them being reclassified.”

The WRA depended on industry trade bodies to organise waste wood samples being collected from their members.

Costs and Delays

Before 1 September, when the waste wood change came into effect, WRA were paying for samples to be tested. Now, that funding no longer exists – leaving the roofing industry to cover the cost.

As 300 samples are still needed for testing in order to collect evidence to get the waste wood reclassified, it means roofing contractors will need to pay around £250 for each test. That’s a bill of 300 x £250 = £75,000 the roofing industry will collectively now need to pay.

Additionally, testing takes around 10 days to complete – delaying projects.

The NFRC said: “Since learning about the implications of the removal of RPS250, NFRC has been working to provide guidance for its members.”

One NFRC member who asked to remain anonymous, commented: “Frankly, it’s astonishing that NFRC have sat on this information and now it’s too late to get the samples tested free of charge. So, we will have to pay for tests, deal with the delays while that takes place and in the meantime have the problem of skip companies refusing to take our waste or charging us huge surcharges to do so. NFRC seems to have really dropped the ball on this issue.”

Now, WRA advises that a roofing industry organisation is needed to take up the issue and organise the collection and testing of the 300 samples. It needs to have the results shared with the WRA and if they show the waste materials are non-hazardous, it can present the evidence to the Environment Agency and hopefully get them reclassified.

The Environment Agency has said it is willing to reconsider the classification if the evidence shows the material is safe for ordinary disposal and recycling.

>>Read more about the waste wood changes in the news