This information is for business customers. For household wood waste, please see our domestic recycling page.
100% of the waste wood we collect is re-used or recycled
– nothing goes to landfill
Simple and convenient
Our service couldn’t be easier to use. Once you are set up on our system:
Make a timber bay with 3 sides of Heras fencing
Segregate all waste wood and call us for a collection when there’s about 12 cubic yards to collect
Sign the electronic waste transfer note for our collection team prior to them leaving the site
Registered contacts will be instantly emailed a copy of the Waste Transfer Note, and invoices with associated WTNs, reports, and statements will be sent at the end of each month. We’re always on hand to answer queries, by phone or email.
20-30%
cheaper than a skip
Reduce your wood disposal costs
In most cases we charge less than an 8yd3 skip, saving you money. We load our vehicles by hand, packing the wood so you don’t get the void spaces found in skips. You only pay for what we take away and so our service can work out at 20-30% cheaper than a typical builders’ skip.
Fulfil CSR and Policy Goals
As well as saving resources, by working with us you are helping to change lives too. Your involvement will result in opportunities for a wide range of disadvantaged people who will gain confidence and self-esteem and learn a range of useful and transferable skills enabling them to get back to work. People we help include ex-offenders, those with mental health or learning difficulties and people who have come through drug and alcohol abuse.
Trusted by the UK’s top construction companies
We are absolutely delighted with the progress Community Wood Recycling have made with our business and are looking forward to building on this success over the coming years. A great initiative that provides benefits for communities and our planet.
Nathan Sandland-JonesSite Manager, WatesWe are absolutely delighted with the progress Community Wood Recycling have made with our business and are looking forward to building on this success over the coming years. A great initiative that provides benefits for communities and our planet.
Mark J. FOX MCIPS, ACIOBProcurement & Supply Chain Manager, Bouygues UKCommunity Wood Recycling provide a first-class service, nothing is ever too much trouble. We have not experienced any issues at all, they are very easy to work with and have been extremely helpful with our enquiries. Willmott Dixon are proud to support Community Wood Recycling and the great work they are doing.
Shelley WilliamsonSupply Chain Coordinator, Wilmott DixonThey have always been very accommodating and offer our business a superb service from start to finish even during these uncertain times we have found ourselves in. If you were to ask me who I would recommend for any wood waste removal, and who goes that extra mile, then Community Wood Recycling are and always will be my first choice.
John FowlerBuyer, WatesCWR consistently deliver to an exceptional standard, completing everything they do with pride. We have a duty to help disadvantaged people to get back into work and improve the communities that we work in. CWR are able to assist with that by providing a service which can be relied upon and coupled with a service that helps others and strives to improve the world we live in.
Jon Meeks, MCIOB, BSc (Hons)Head of Supply Chain, Wilmott DixonCustomer satisfaction
To ensure our customers get the best possible service, we survey every site we collect from using our key service criteria. Our feedback is consistently positive, and we’re always looking for ways to improve.
Would recommend the service
(Based on 195 surveys in 2025)
Committed to quality and best practice
We’re proud to be a social business registered with Social Enterprise UK and accredited under SafeContractor, SafePQQ and Constructionline. We’re also ISO 9001 certified, meaning we manage the quality of our services in line with guidance from ISO, the world’s leading best practice authority, to ensure our Quality Policy is delivered on. For more information, see our Awards and Certifications page.
Wood bays
We don’t require a skip, but we do need wood to be piled somewhere accessible by vehicle, preferably a bay made from 3 sections of Heras fencing. When you have at least 12 cubic yards, give us a call and we’ll collect. We ask that you don’t break up or compact the wood. There’s no need to cover it or remove nails, screws, door furniture, fixings, pallet fastenings and other metal contamination.
What we collect
We’ll collect virtually all waste timber, wood composites, furniture and wooden items, regardless of type or condition. Collections composed mostly of heavy material such as fire doors, kitchen units or offcuts of sheet materials are charged on a ‘Minimum Load’ basis. See our terms and conditions for full details.
Electronic Waste Transfer Notes
To cut paper waste and keep things simple for our collectors and clients, we comissioned bespoke waste transfer management software. Copies of WTNs are emailed to contacts as soon as the collection is completed, and if the Purchase Order needs uplifting, details are sent to relevant staff. There are no apps to download or portals to sign into – all you need to do is provide us with contact email addresses when you sign up and electronically sign the tablet we’ll bring with us to site. WTNs are timestamped and automatically filled out with all details needed for full legal compliance, and copies are sent with invoices at the end of the month. There’s no obligation to use the system and if you’d prefer, we can provide conventional paper WTNs instead, copies of which will also be emailed. Never lose a Waste Transfer Note again!
Keeping you informed
Recycling certificates
When a site reaches 10 tonnes, 20 tonnes, 50 tonnes, and 100 tonnes of wood collected, we issue certificates of recycling direct to site to let you know how much wood is being saved. We can also issue custom certificates on site completion, or for an entire division or company on request.
Waste summaries
To help you monitor your waste and produce site waste management plans, we provide monthly summaries of the wood we collect and how much was reused, turned into firewood, or recycled, along with an export of the data for creating your own summaries.
Impact reports
We provide quarterly and annual estimates of the number of people your custom has helped us support and the CO2 you’ve helped to save based on your contribution of work, and can provide these reports on demand for a particular division or site over any period.
Community wood reuse in practice
By partnering with Community Wood Recycling at their Bath Western Riverside site, Crest Nicholson saved over 200 tonnes of wood for reuse and recycling. Collections at the site were carried out by Bristol Wood Recycling Project, a co-operative established in 2004. The wood collected was sorted and reused for projects in the community and beyond.
Helping you lead the way in sustainability
The construction sector generates over 30% of the UK’s waste, 25% of its carbon emissions, and has a significant impact on biodiversity. Transitioning to more sustainable practices is therefore vital if the UK is to meet its target of net zero by 2050, as well as the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals for a safe and fair future for humanity by 2030. Community Wood Recycling’s social and environmental mission intersects with a number of these goals, so working with us is one of the many ways to help put your company at the forefront of this global effort.
Much of the UK economy lacks flexibility for people’s varied life situations or a framework for adult learning, leading to a cycle of overwork, underemployment, and low productivity. We provide volunteers with opportunities to try out and learn skills for free, and make sure that our jobs are inclusive, equitable and well-supported, helping everyone to contribute in the way that suits them best.
As well as providing construction and industry with a better way of handling wood waste, our social enterprises use economic activity to drive social change by reinvesting all profit into growth. We provide affordable timber and furniture for homes and gardens as well as partnering with councils and other organisations on parks and community projects to create greener, kinder public spaces.
We reuse wood at the highest level, only recycling what can’t be reused, and landfilling nothing. As well as reducing waste this softens demand for virgin timber, which although a renewable resource still risks depletion and deforestation if overused. Felling and transporting timber across the globe also creates hundreds of kilos of CO2 for each tonne of final product, so conserving it and minimising transport is important.
Our vehicles use less fuel than skip lorries, we displace virgin timber and carbon-intensive materials, we keep wood out of landfill reducing methane emissions, and much of the non-reusable wood we collect ends up as biomass for renewable baseload power, displacing natural gas. Responsible and efficient resource management is one of the key ways that humanity can ensure a liveable future while also creating economic value.
There are many other less direct ways our work intersects with the sustainable development goals such as reducing local poverty and inequality, supporting the mental and physical health of our staff and volunteers, promoting a more equal gender balance in carpentry and construction, and fostering innovation by integrating social enterprise into the value chain.
Changing people’s lives for the better
As well as saving resources, we are committed to creating jobs, training and volunteering opportunities for local people who for one reason or another are marginalized from the labour market. All sorts of people get to work in our highly supportive but disciplined and customer-focussed social enterprises. We train them, help them to build their confidence and self-esteem and up-skill them – and if we can’t employ them within the enterprise, we’ll help them move on to other paid work, often in the construction sector. For many people, their time with Community Wood Recycling can be a genuinely life-changing experience.