The UK waste wood sector demonstrated considerable resilience throughout 2025 despite facing one of its most challenging trading periods in recent years. Industry data released by the Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA) revealed that more than four million tonnes of waste wood continued to be reused, recycled or recovered across the UK. However, market disruption led to a modest decline in overall processing volumes compared with the previous year.
According to the WRA’s latest annual statistics, 4.013 million tonnes of waste wood were processed during 2025. This accounted for 89% of all waste wood generated across the UK. Although this represented a 7.3% reduction from 2024, the processing rate remained significantly stronger than many other waste streams.
The reduction followed substantial pressure on the market during the year. Several unplanned outages at end-use facilities created an oversupply of waste wood. This also placed considerable strain on available storage capacity across the sector.
Despite these operational difficulties, processors continued to maintain material flows wherever possible. Industry representatives said the figures reflected the sector’s ability to adapt under exceptional conditions.
The WRA believes the latest results reinforce the need for more flexible and risk-based regulation governing waste wood storage. Greater flexibility, it argued, would help operators manage seasonal fluctuations and temporary market disruptions without compromising environmental performance.
The association noted that elevated waste wood volumes have continued into 2025. Seasonal trends, combined with higher stock levels carried over from the previous year, have increased pressure on storage infrastructure.
Limited storage capacity was said to have contributed to material being diverted away from recycling and recovery. Some waste wood was instead sent to landfill, while other volumes reportedly reached unregulated destinations, including illegal waste sites.
Julia Turner, Executive Director of the WRA, said the latest figures demonstrated the industry’s resilience despite unprecedented market conditions.
She stated that the sector successfully processed more than four million tonnes of material during the year. According to Turner, this reflected the efforts made by businesses to keep waste wood moving through available recycling and recovery routes whenever possible.
However, she also acknowledged that a relatively small but important proportion of waste wood was lost to landfill or illegal disposal routes.
Turner said this highlighted the urgent requirement for more adaptable, risk-based storage regulations that recognise the seasonal nature of waste wood operations.
She explained that increased flexibility would enable responsible operators to safely store material during periods of market disruption. As a result, more waste wood could eventually be recycled or reused within the UK instead of being removed from the circular economy.
She also warned that, without greater flexibility at permitted storage facilities, additional material could be diverted to illegal sites during periods of sustained market pressure.
The WRA confirmed that discussions with environmental regulators across the UK’s four nations are continuing. The aim is to help the industry respond effectively to ongoing operational challenges while maintaining responsible waste management practices.
The annual statistics were compiled using survey responses from WRA members, who collectively represent around 90% of the UK market by volume. The findings were then combined with other industry datasets before being extrapolated to produce national estimates.
Detailed analysis of the figures highlighted several important market trends.
The volume of waste wood supplied to biomass facilities reached 2.459 million tonnes during 2025. This represented a 12% decline compared with the previous year.
In contrast, demand from panel board manufacturers increased slightly. Waste wood used in panel board production rose by 0.7% to 927,000 tonnes.
Other recycling applications, including animal bedding, equine surfaces and reuse activities, totalled 300,000 tonnes after experiencing a slight decline overall.
At the same time, reuse volumes increased by 12%. This was viewed as a positive development for the sector.
Net exports and imports also recorded growth. The combined figure increased by just over 12%, rising from 211,000 tonnes in 2024 to 237,000 tonnes during 2025.
Small-scale biomass consumption remained unchanged at 90,000 tonnes.
The remaining waste wood was believed to have followed several routes. Some material was stored for processing during 2026. Some was sent to energy-from-waste facilities or landfill. A proportion was also thought to have entered unregulated disposal channels.
The WRA estimates that total UK waste wood arisings remained stable at approximately 4.5 million tonnes throughout 2025.
Commenting on the increase in reuse, Turner said the improvement had been encouraged by social enterprises that shared operational best practice and enhanced their reuse activities.
She added that actual reuse volumes are likely to be higher than current estimates. Reuse data from household waste recycling centres is not yet included within the annual statistics. The WRA hopes this information can be incorporated into future reporting, providing a more comprehensive picture of reuse activity across the UK waste wood sector.
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