Millions of tonnes of UK waste wood could be without a domestic market from next year if the government does not take urgent steps to protect the UK's waste wood biomass sector, the Wood Recyclers' Association (WRA) has warned.
Around 4.5 million tonnes of waste wood arise in the UK each year and the majority of this (nearly 3 million tonnes) – including lower grade material that is difficult to recycle – is sent to biomass plants each year* to produce low-carbon baseload energy.
However, from April 2027, support for these plants under the Renewables Obligation (RO) starts to fall away, forcing many of these plants to close.
According to the WRA, this could decimate the UK's largest outlet for waste wood, with severe consequences for those throughout the waste wood supply chain, from local authorities to wood recyclers and waste management companies.
'Tip of the iceberg'
Since spring 2025, the market has already seen an unprecedented oversupply of waste wood, triggered by a number of factors including temporary outages at end-use facilities**.
However, the WRA warns that this oversupply could just be the 'tip of the iceberg' if the future of these plants is not protected.
The WRA says that without continued access to biomass outlets, operators may be forced to export waste wood or divert it to landfill.
Richard Coulson, WRA biomass lead, said: "As anyone in the sector knows, temporary issues with offtake have created a huge oversupply of waste wood in recent months. This has put significant pressure on the market, increased disposal costs and already resulted in some wood being sent to landfill.
"However, this situation could just be the tip of the iceberg if the UK's waste wood powered biomass plants are allowed to close from next year, removing an essential, compliant outlet for millions of tonnes of material.
"We will also remove up to 700MW of low-carbon, baseload power from the grid – enough to power 1.5m homes – at a key moment for the UK's clean power ambitions."
Richard warned that these closures would also undermine the development of the UK's emerging greenhouse gas removals sector.
He explained: "The WRA's member sites have the potential to capture 3.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year from the waste wood fraction of fuel alone, through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). This role was recognised and endorsed in the recent independent review into greenhouse gas removals (GGRs). Losing these sites now would jeopardise that progress before it even begins."
Transitional support
The WRA is urging the government to introduce time-bound transitional support to bridge the gap between 2027 and the mid-2030s, when GGR technology and the underlying policy and infrastructure will be available at scale, allowing plants to operate with minimal support.
This support, the WRA suggests, could be delivered through a contracts for difference (CfD) type mechanism at relatively low cost – particularly when considering the benefits to waste management, grid stability and carbon reduction.
Richard commented: "We strongly urge ministers to act now and implement the recommendations laid out in the independent review into GGRs and support our sector.
"Timely support will secure our sector's crucial role in delivering negative emissions and preserve the critical environmental service we provide in providing an outlet for millions of tonnes of UK waste wood each year.
"2027 is just around the corner. Government must act now – before it is too late."
Outlet for millions of tonnes of waste wood will be lost unless government acts now, warns WRA
