operated by Golden Bay Cement<\/a>.<\/p>\nTreated timber is timber that has been coated with chemicals to stop it rotting, or to protect it from burrowing insects.<\/p>\n
Treated timber is used for the likes of building homes, decking or for outdoor projects and structures.<\/p>\n
Some of the chemicals used to treat timber can be harmful to humans if burned and inhaled, such as arsenic.<\/p>\n
Arsenic is a key component in a commonly used preservative known as CCA.<\/p>\n
Many councils around New Zealand urge residents not to burn treated timber in fireplaces for that reason.<\/p>\n
Pan Pac\u2019s high-temperature boiler, which is being used for the trial, is different to household fireplaces.<\/p>\n
Pan Pac environmental manager Reece O\u2019Leary said the boiler had \u201ca baghouse filter\u201d to manage emissions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very important to note that the boiler combustion process does not produce smoke or the type of emissions you would get when burning wood in a fireplace or outdoor space,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur boilers are designed to generate process steam and we follow strict requirements around air quality and monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boiler has a stack (chimney) and emissions will be monitored throughout the trial, including for any potential health impacts.<\/p>\n
Two independent air quality experts have advised that it is safe to run the trial, according to Hastings District Council.<\/p>\n
An air quality expert will also supervise the trial.<\/p>\n
![\"]()
Part of Pan Pac’s mill, north of Napier. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
None of the treated timber will come from Pan Pac. Rather, the aim is to dispose of waste from the likes of construction or demolition in the region.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary said Pan Pac received very little benefit from the project.<\/p>\n
The boilers produce electricity that helps power the mill, but O\u2019Leary said the treated timber would provide a relatively \u201cinsignificant\u201d amount of fuel for the boiler.<\/p>\n
Untreated wood is already being used as fuel for the boilers.<\/p>\n
Hastings District Council says the trial will only proceed if approved by Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council, and it will be \u201cindependently monitored to ensure community health and environmental safety\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pan Pac has yet to lodge a resource consent application with Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council for the trial, but plans to do so soon.<\/p>\n
Hastings District Council expects the trial to go ahead sometime in the second half of 2026, and local residents have been notified.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s regional construction and demolition waste minimisation lead Geoff Gibson said when treated timber was buried in landfill, it produced methane.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trial with Pan Pac is about exploring whether there\u2019s a better local option for this waste that could reduce landfill emissions and benefit our construction and rural sectors,\u201d Gibson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity to find an alternative, less harmful solution to deal with this waste created across Hawke\u2019s Bay is supported by the councils\u2019 [Napier and Hastings] joint waste management and minimisation plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the trial shows it\u2019s not viable, it will not progress any further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treated timber ranges from H1 to H6. The higher the number, the higher the intensity of the treatment.<\/p>\n
The trial will look at three different scenarios. Scenario one is burning H1.2-treated timber only.<\/p>\n
Scenario two is burning H3- and H4-treated timber only, which includes timber treated with the likes of CCA (which contains arsenic).<\/p>\n
Scenario three is burning a mix of all treated timber types.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hastings District Council and Napier City Council first approached the mill in 2019 to explore whether its boilers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1975,14146,7243,3607,3180,111,43,139,69,2170,2171,181059,181060,5215,61,23505],"class_list":["post-338236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-at","tag-burn","tag-mill","tag-napier","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plan","tag-plans","tag-resurface","tag-resurfaced","tag-timber","tag-to","tag-treated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}