Media Release: New Study Finds No Chemical Preservatives in 99% of Waste Wood Packaging

Thursday, 31 July 2008 00:00

A new study has found that the vast majority of post-consumer wood pallets and crates have no chemical preservative residues so almost all can be fully recycled or used to generate renewable energy. The world-first study, completed on behalf of the National Timber Product Stewardship Group (NTPSG), was carried out on stockpiles of waste wood packaging at sites in Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. The study dispels misinformation in the recycling industry that wood packaging is generally treated. “Many non-timber people equate the word treatment with copper, chrome arsenate (CCA). This is not the case and most imported wood packaging is heat sterilized or fumigated” said Stephen Mitchell – Project Manager for the NTPSG. Analysis was done with a hand-held X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyser – an instrument commonly used in soil remediation and quality control in wood preservative treatment applications. A large number of samples of wood pallets and crates were analysed for the presence of 14 different elements including copper, chromium, arsenic and lead. The study only found 1% of the wood packaging samples tested were made with timber treated with CCA. Of this 1%, all except one sample were wood pallets used to import goods from New Zealand. “When we contacted the companies importing the goods, they thought that using wood treated with permanent preservatives such as CCA was the only way that their wood packaging would be allowed into Australia,” says Mitchell. “We provided them with information about the ISPM-15 wood packaging standard which offers cheaper sterilization and fumigation alternatives and also allows the wood packaging to be recycled at its end-of-life.” said Mitchell. As a result of this study we should see even more old pallets and crates, which cannot be repaired or reused, recycled into new particleboard, mulch, animal bedding and renewable energy. “This study supports the wood packaging industry, as well as the timber suppliers to these businesses, in demonstrating to customers and the community that the industry is playing its part in good product stewardship and that we are working to reduce the environmental impact of our products, even after they have been used.” said Mitchell. The study was done of behalf of the National Timber Product Stewardship Group, a timber industry initiative, which has the aim of doubling the quantity of post-consumer timber recovered for recycling and renewable energy to one million tonnes per year by 2017. Funding for the study was provided by Western Australian Governments Strategic Waste Initiatives Scheme, the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change and the Queensland Department of Trade, Industry and Regional Development. The study can be accessed via the NTPSG website at www.timberstewardship.org.au.