The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has today (11 November) published the UK government’s response to three consultations relating to the European Commission’s (EC) Circular Economy Package.

The two documents released today contain Defra’s combined response to the public circular economy consultation and waste markets consultation – due to the complementary nature of the subject matter, as well as a response to a governmental consultation.

Member states consultation on the circular economy

The bulk of the government’s policy recommendations came in the survey of member states on the circular economy. In preparation for the release of the Circular Economy Package next month, the EC specifically consulted governments on a number of topics including barriers to the establishment of a circular economy, successful measures that had been used at a variety of levels and the definitions of waste.

In its response, Defra starts by stating that any actions taken on the circular economy should follow six guiding principles:

• seek greater resource efficiency, reduce reliance on virgin materials and keep materials in circulation;
• reduce complexity and ensure that measures are complementary, not contradictory or duplicative;
• adopt a holistic approach to developing the new circular economy package as a whole – the impact of waste prevention actions needs to be taken into account in considering the ‘waste part of the circle’;
• maintain the integrity of the EU single market and support measures to deliver growth and innovation, avoiding and where appropriate reducing burdens on business, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);
• respect the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality but also recognise when EU action is needed, to provide long-term visions, harmonise policy frameworks where needed and ensure exchanges of best practice – essentially to create enablers at EU level;
• allow member states freedom to act in the most economically and environmentally advantageous way.

Defra promoted the Waste & Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP) Resource Efficient Business Models (REBUS) work, which involves a range of partners from the UK and the Netherlands demonstrating how businesses and their supply chains can implement efficient business models. The adoption of these models are paramount, Defra says, to encouraging the better use of materials.

The adoption of a systems approach (including rethinking extended producer responsibility to be broadened beyond recovery at end of life), making better use of data and promoting voluntary agreements is also encouraged by the Defra response.

Regarding the issue of waste definitions, Defra called for clarification on whether materials recovered following incineration or incineration bottom ash (IBA) can be reported as recycling, as it feels these materials are inconsistently reported across member states.

Public Circular Economy Package consultation

Defra has also released the response it sent to the EC in October in relation to the public consultation on the Circular Economy Package (which closed in August). For this response, Defra chose to give views on topics covered by the consultation, but not set out any new policies.

Defra calls on the EC to focus the package on:

• drawing on the principles of better regulation – improving environmental and social outcomes while also reducing burdens on business, consumers and administrators;
• approaching the circular economy as a whole – facilitating the establishment of a framework of actions to ensure a holistic approach with proportionate and complementary policies;
• building on current measures and developing new ideas to keep materials in circulation where it makes sense economically, environmentally and socially; and
• working together with other parts of the commission – exploring the full potential of synergies between environmental policy including action to tackle climate change and other fields to encourage growth and innovation.

Individual actions that the response called on the EC to take included:

• supporting the establishment of EU-wide networks that allow traditionally separate industries and organisations to foster innovative resource use strategies;
• evaluating the effectiveness of existing EU initiatives around product policy and design;
• reviewing the wider role played by chemicals in supporting a more circular economy;
• developing and providing businesses with information, advice and support on improving their resource efficiency, to ensure economies of scale are created; and
• supporting the efforts of member states to use public procurement to stimulate the market for reused, remanufactured and recycled content.

When the development of this Circular Economy Package was announced last December, the EC promised that it would be ‘ambitious’ with new waste targets. In the intervening months, the headline figures that are expected to be included in the package were 2030 recycling targets of 70 per cent for municipal solid waste and 80 per cent target for packaging waste.

When these measures were voted on, and widely approved, by MEPs in July, a report in the Guardian suggested that the UK was urging British MEPs to oppose the targets, with a source quoted as saying: “We feel that a greater emphasis needs to be given to other measures such as voluntary agreements with industry and incentives to reward behavioural changes.”

This attitude was consistent with the UK response to a 2013 consultation on waste targets in which the government claimed it would oppose new recycling targets as they ‘would be unlikely to improve the current system’. There is, however, no mention of targets in Defra’s response to this consultation.

Response to waste markets consultation

The final response was part of the EC’s public consultation on the functioning of waste markets, which ran from 12 June to 4 September and sought to obtain a better understanding of the nature and extent of regulatory failures causing distortions to EU waste markets for recycling and recovery.

Defra called commitments to adhere to principles of better regulation when proposing new legislation ‘welcome’ and supported in particular the renewed commitment to the ‘Think Small First’ principle, which aims to help small businesses avoid unnecessary red tape. It called on the EC to deliver its better regulation commitments within its plans for a revised legislative proposal on waste.

The response also declared that the UK would ‘strongly support’:

• exemptions for some SMEs, such as small shop owners, from registering as waste carriers if they only transport small amounts of their own non-hazardous waste;
• removing the need to apply for permit exemptions for activities that pose little risk, such as small-scale composting by schools; and
• exempting companies that collect smaller amounts of batteries from paying for battery recycling.

Concern was also expressed about the inconsistent application of waste provisions across member states. These, Defra says, are particularly important in the areas of end of waste status, the Waste Shipment Regulations and preparation for reuse.

It therefore encouraged the EC to examine opportunities to allow member states to incentivise greater repair, reuse and remanufacturing, recyclability and recycled content in specific products.

For more information, read Defra’s public circular economy and waste market consultations responses or the member state consultation response.