Australia Leads National Scheme to Address End-of-Life Vineyard Posts
The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence is working in partnership with the South Australian Wine Industry Association to deliver a stewardship scheme design by late next year, with 85.6 million more posts still standing in vineyards nationwide.
A tag on the end of a timber post marks it as treated with copper chrome arsenate, the preservative in 80 per cent of the timber in Australia's stockpiled and standing vineyard posts. (Photo Credit: Supplied by the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence)
Millions of old vineyard posts are a step closer to being managed, with South Australia’s wine industry designing a national stewardship scheme for the 32.5 million stockpiled across the country. That is according to the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence (the Centre), which has set out how it will design the scheme in partnership with the South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) by late next year. Dr Penelope Mitchell and her team at the University of the Sunshine Coast estimated that stockpile for the Timber Circularity Project, along with another 85.6 million posts still standing in Australian vineyards.
Of that timber, 80 per cent is treated with copper chrome arsenate (CCA), with between 10,300 and 26,100 tonnes of CCA-treated posts coming out of vineyards every year. CCA-treated timber typically lasts three to four decades in service, from vineyard trellises to utilities infrastructure, landscape, construction and aquaculture.
Timber posts and wires hold up dormant vines in a vineyard, where posts come out when they break during harvest or when the trellis they support is upgraded or removed, University of the Sunshine Coast researchers found. (Photo Credit: Supplied by the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence)
Planning for the scheme stretches back to a 2024 prospectus, which the Centre helped write for the industry’s Treated Timber Product Stewardship Working Group with funding from Wine Australia. Wine Australia said that prospectus informed the national stewardship project announced by the South Australian Government last year, with the state and Commonwealth committing $800,000 to the work.
“Product Stewardship provides an opportunity to better manage end-of-life CCA-treated timber nationally, supporting industries that make use of the material, while contributing to Australia’s efforts towards a circular economy,” the Centre’s project overview states. A “modular and expandable” stewardship scheme could support vineyard owners with environmentally sound disposal while optimising feedstock supply for investors in end-of-life technology, the Centre said.
A steering committee with representatives from the viticulture industry, timber preservers, forestry, waste management, and resource recovery oversees the national project. The Centre plans to engage stakeholders across the whole supply chain, from manufacture and use through to end-of-life, as the scheme takes shape.
Primary Industries and Regional Development and Forest Industries Minister Clare Scriven told Parliament in June that the stewardship project has relevance to treated timber across every sector that uses it. This project is proudly supported by the Government of South Australia through the Department of Primary Industries and Regions, and funding contributed by the Australian Government.
Potential end-of-life solutions and alternative materials will be considered before the Centre creates a financial model that can finance a scheme. Regulatory and governance models will then be assessed to enable “equitable and successful implementation”, before the Centre proposes a stewardship scheme design.
Reuse has already been put to the test in South Australia, where the FABAL Group’s mobile unit stripped fasteners from stockpiled posts and cut them to length for fencing. The university ran the pilot with co-funding from the South Australian Wine Recovery Program, and showcased the completed trials at Langhorne Creek in May.
Early studies suggest the unit can process 600 posts a day, FWPA reported, with preliminary modelling indicating the posts can sell for more than they cost to process. Mitchell said reuse “just makes a lot of sense” once growers’ disposal costs are factored in, with FWPA estimating potential savings of up to $ 3,000 per hectare.
Used timber posts stacked on open ground, with the reuse pilot’s mobile system able to connect directly to existing farm machinery, Forest and Wood Products Australia said. (Photo Credit: Supplied by the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence)
“This project comes at a critical time for the wine industry. While a small amount of CCA‑treated timber is being re-used, licensed landfill is the only legal or official disposal pathway at this time, and this is often cost-prohibitive,” says Kobie Keenan, Project Manager at the Centre. “Assessing this challenge through a stewardship lens can support the immediate issue of stockpiled posts, while also considering future management of end-of-life CCA timber.”
Industry and government stakeholders can help inform the national scheme design through a Technical Advisory Group, town hall meetings and forums to be promoted throughout the project. Kobie Keenan, the Centre’s project manager for CCA-treated timber stewardship, is fielding queries and adding stakeholders to the project’s mailing list.
Editor’s note: This article is based on material supplied to Wood Central by the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence. For more on the national stewardship project for CCA-treated timber, visit the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence website.
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