Our Power, our planet: Why waste wood has a role in the circular energy transition

By Elliot Renton, CEO, Evero

Each year, Earth Day invites us to reflect on how we power our lives, and how those choices shape the planet. This year’s theme, Our Power, Our Planet, highlights an important truth: the energy transition is not only about building new renewable infrastructure, but using the resources we already have in a more intelligent way.

Renewable energy accounted for a record amount of 44% of the UK’s grid in 2025, with biomass making up 6.9% of the total electricity mix. That’s real progress. But as the sector scales, the question is no longer simply how much clean energy we can generate, it’s how responsibly we generate it, and from what materials.

One resource still underestimated in that conversation is waste wood. Generated from construction, demolition, and households, this includes old furniture, doors, window frames, and offcuts from building projects, material that has reached the end of its usable life. The UK produces around 4.5 million tonnes each year, of which 3 million tonnes is low-grade - painted, treated, or mixed with other materials - and its options beyond energy recovery are limited.

The UK has already made strong progress in managing waste wood. The next step is to build on that success, not by treating it as a problem to dispose of, but as a resource to optimise. Managed responsibly, waste wood can play an increasingly meaningful role in a more circular, lower-carbon energy system.

That’s where waste wood biomass plants come in. They convert end-of-life material into renewable electricity and heat, tackling two challenges at once: reducing landfill and displacing fossil fuels. It’s a practical example of circular economy thinking, keeping resources in use for as long as possible, then recovering their energy value at the end of their lifecycle.

This isn’t theoretical. Facilities across the UK are already doing it at scale, converting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of residual waste wood into reliable power, enough to supply nearly 850,000 UK homes every year. Crucially, this is energy generated without additional land use or pressure on natural resources. It’s about extracting value from what already exists.

And that reliability matters. Wind and solar are indispensable, but they are variable. Bioenergy, by contrast, provides stable, baseload power that helps balance the system and supports energy security as the grid decarbonises. A resilient and home-grown energy system will need both.

Of course, as the renewable sector grows, so does scrutiny, and rightly so. Not all renewable pathways deliver the same environmental outcomes. That’s why transparency and robust standards are essential. Sustainability of feedstock must be demonstrated through clear, independently verifiable frameworks, ensuring that materials are responsibly sourced and traceable.

The UK already has strong regulatory oversight in place, with frameworks that ensure waste wood used for energy recovery meets strict environmental criteria overseen by the Environment Agency and Ofgem. This kind of governance is critical, not just for compliance, but for maintaining confidence in the role waste wood can play in a credible net zero strategy.

Looking ahead, the opportunity goes further. When combined with carbon capture and storage, waste wood could deliver negative emissions, removing carbon from the atmosphere while continuing to generate reliable energy. That’s not just low carbon; it’s carbon negative.

Waste wood may not attract the same attention as large-scale renewable projects, but its contribution highlights an important principle behind this year’s Earth Day theme. The choices we make about energy are inseparable from how we manage the resources around us.

Sometimes the most effective climate solutions are not the newest ones, but the ones that allow us to make better use of what we already have.