Preservative-treated Wood and Legislation

Similarly, legislation has been, or will be, introduced to deal with the disposal of treated wood waste at the end of a product lifetime. No longer will it be acceptable to dispose of treated wood waste by dumping in landfill. Proper disposal will require the incineration of treated wood waste in appropriate facilities that have the necessary equipment to prevent stack emissions of toxic compounds. This requires expensive investment to build plant that can meet the relevant environmental requirements. Such methods probably represent the best option for the permanent removal of these potential pollutants. The ash generated in these plants may contain high concentrations of arsenic, which will then have to be disposed of as hazardous waste. 

Uie recycling of wood waste is also increasingly being used, where timber products at the end of life are usually reduced by chipping, or fibre production, and the resultant material is then reused in reconstituted wood products. Strict monitoring and control are required in order to ensure that inappropriately treated waste is not included in the feedstock stream for recycling wood. The use of recycled wood in reconstituted products is rising rapidly for example, in the UK, the panel products industry used 400 000 tonnes of recycled wood in 1999, and this had risen to 932000 tonnes by 2002 (UK Forestry Commission data 2003). 

Timber used structurally in public, agricultural, office or industrial buildings (no human contact) 

Constructional timber in freshwater areas Noise barriers, highway safety fencing, earth-retaining structures, avalanche control, livestock fence posts Utility poles (electric power transmission, telecommunications) 

Agricultural uses, other than fencing or structural 

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