The ultimate aim of TRADA’s new online Timber Recycling Information Centre (TRIC) is to get industry to see wood waste as a ‘benefit rather than a burden’.
The TRIC, at www.recycle-it.org, has been developed by the Business Solutions Group at TRADA Technology with additional backing from the Biffaward scheme. It has been live in a testing mode for a while, but last week had its official trade press launch.
TRADA said the impetus behind the development of the ‘waste managment news and information’ resource came from the facts that around 40% of UK timber purchases end up as waste and that new regulations are going to make this increasingly costly and difficult to dispose of to landfill.
‘The aim of the site is to get away from the view that timber waste is negative and that it can represent an opportunity,’ said Business Solutions Group senior programmer Julian Doncaster. ‘It shows that you can have a positive take on timber residues and that they can help build a business, rather than undermine it.’
According to TRADA, the free-access TRIC has taken ‘four man years’ to develop. It offers help on new legislation, advice on the impact of new packaging regulations in the timber sector, information on best practice in waste management, case studies, business toolkits, waste identification advice and a directory for businesses and individuals in waste management and timber recycling.
‘It will also act as a waste management marriage bureau, with links to recycling businesses and reprocessors,’ said Business Solutions Group project manager Phil Becker. ‘It will bring together companies with waste to get rid of and those which use it.’
The site is also designed as an ‘educational tool’ to link the sector with schools. It includes information that can be used in the National Curriculum and is being promoted directly to schools with the help of the ‘Heads, Teachers, Industry’ organisation.
