A two-fold management strategy is presented for the disposal of wood treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA). The first part focuses on the use of alternative wood treatment preservatives. The second part of the management strategy addresses short-term disposal issues (less than 25 years) by developing new methods to handle the waste. A set of seven alternative wood preservatives were evaluated through this study. Issues evaluated included efficacy, depletion, corrosion, and costs. Results indicate that viable alternatives are available for CCA-treated wood for the lower retention levels (4 to 6.4 kg/m3). The development of disposal-end management strategies for CCA-treated wood began by tracking the discarded wood within the disposal sector of the State of Florida, USA. It was found that existing disposal methods, which included disposal within unlined landfills and recycling either as mulch or wood fuel, were not acceptable. New disposal-end management strategies evaluated included treatment methods for CCA-treated wood ash and two sorting technologies for separating CCA-treated wood from other wood types within the disposal stream. Results indicate that citric acid is effective at removing arsenic from CCA-treated wood ash. Chemical stain and x-ray based methods were found suitable for sorting treated from untreated wood.

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