Jul 12, 2013. /Lesprom Network/. The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) has welcomed the announcement by the NSW EPA that the NSW Government intends to change the rules to allow timber waste and residues – often called biomass - to be used for electricity generation, as the AFPA said in a press release received by Lesprom Network.

Chief Executive Mr Ross Hampton said; ‘This common-sense move brings NSW in line with other States and helps bring Australia up to speed with the rest of the developed world.

‘Biomass is the small branches and offcuts left over when trees are harvested and sawmill waste, such as chips and sawdust, that are generated by cutting round logs into square timbers.

‘The use of biomass from by-products of timber harvesting and from the manufacturing of timber flooring, furniture, house frames etc. is actively encouraged in advanced countries such as Finland where it is recognised that using biomass is carbon neutral over the long term.

‘Using biomass is good for the environment as it displaces fossil fuels with a renewable carbon-neutral resource.

Trees absorb carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere and, when harvested, the products retain a large part of that carbon for the life of the product.

‘You can’t grow new coal, but you can grow new trees, recycling the CO2 in the atmosphere’, said Mr Hampton.