The UK waste wood sector processed 4.013 million tonnes of material in 2025 — equivalent to 89% of all waste wood generated in the country — despite a turbulent year marked by unplanned outages at end-use facilities and mounting pressure on storage capacity, according to new figures from the Wood Recyclers' Association (WRA).
The total represented a 7.3% year-on-year decline, the WRA said, as oversupply caused by facility outages pushed the market into difficulty and constrained operators' ability to keep material moving through legitimate channels.
Large-scale biomass remained the dominant end use, accounting for 2.459 million tonnes, though that figure was itself down 12% on the previous year.
Panel board production held relatively steady, rising marginally by 0.7% to 927,000 tonnes. Exports and imports netted off increased by just over 12% to 237,000 tonnes, while small-scale biomass use remained static at 90,000 tonnes. Other recycling routes including animal bedding, equine surfaces and reuse collectively totalled 300,000 tonnes, with reuse specifically up 12%.
The WRA said a proportion of material that could not be processed through these routes was diverted to less desirable outlets, including energy-from-waste facilities, landfill and in some cases unregulated or illegal waste sites.
Julia Turner, executive director of the WRA, said the figures demonstrated the sector's resilience under what she described as unprecedented conditions, but warned that the regulatory environment was hampering operators' ability to respond to disruption. "A small but significant proportion of waste wood was lost to outlets such as landfill or in some cases ended up at illegal waste sites," she said.
"This underlines the urgent need for more flexible, risk-based regulation around storage to reflect the seasonal nature of our industry."
The WRA is calling for greater flexibility at permitted sites to allow responsible operators to store material safely during periods of disruption, arguing that without it more waste wood risks being lost from the circular economy. Turner said the association was continuing to work with regulators across all four nations and flagged that elevated stock levels carried over from 2025, combined with seasonal factors, meant the pressure on the sector was ongoing.
Total UK waste wood arisings in 2025 were estimated at 4.5 million tonnes, unchanged from the previous year. The WRA's annual statistics are produced from a member survey covering around 90% of the market by volume, with figures extrapolated to produce UK totals.
UK waste wood sector processed over four million tonnes in 2025
