Members of the waste and resources industry have voiced disappointment and frustration with the UK government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on the circular economy.

In July, the EAC published its special report on ‘Growing a circular economy: Ending the throwaway society’, which was issued following an inquiry into whether it is possible to de-couple economic growth from natural resource use, and what roles household recycling and the waste management sector have in the circular economy.

In the report, the EAC called on government to implement a range of measures to help bring about a circular economy. However, the government response, which was released on Saturday (1 November), largely rejected the EAC’s recommendations.

Speaking of the response, Ray Georgeson, Chief Executive of the Resource Association, voiced ‘disappointment’ at the government response, adding: “What is clear from the directness of the government response is how little appetite [there] appears to be for vital policy changes needed to accelerate the circular economy and end the throwaway society – but we knew this already.

“Like many other stakeholders in the waste and resources sector, we find this exasperating, as the potential for genuine waste reduction, resource efficiency and green growth with the carbon and jobs benefits that will accrue is still lower on the policy radar than we and many others would wish.”

FareShare's Food Director, Mark Varney, added that government should be doing more to increase circularity, as currently legislation states that the UK should respect the waste hierarchy, but “that is not happening left, right, and centre”.

He said: “For example, we’ve got an anaerobic digestion (AD) sector that has capacity for around a million tonnes a year, but we’re producing 12 million tonnes of food waste a year. So that means that a lot of food is going elsewhere, whether that be incineration, composting, landfill, et cetera.. and there is little in place to push it up the hierarchy and be redistributed.

“Government support for anaerobic digestion is fantastic, and we wouldn’t criticise that, but it means that it’s a lot cheaper for businesses to throw food away than to redistribute it. Providing funding for AD and not funding food redistribution or providing tax incentives for food redistribution is inconsistent with the legal requirement to respect the waste hierarchy.

“Financial support is the biggest thing we need to push waste up the hierarchy, but it is disappointing and frustrating that it is not forthcoming.”

Government should support EC circular economy package

The trade association for waste management facilities, the Environmental Services Association (ESA), also said the reaction from government was “disappointing”, but that it was “not entirely unexpected that the government is not willing to accept any significant policy changes when we are now getting closer to the general eections”.

He added: “Given the ambition set by the European Commission in its Circular Economy package, it is clear that more effort is needed to stimulate end markets for recyclates, for example in terms of VAT exemptions for recycled content, and we believe that the government should keep this in mind going forward.”

Indeed, Deputy Chief Executive of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) Chris Murphy, said that central government should be supporting the EC's package, stating: “There were many encouraging proposals in the EAC report and the government’s response did contain some positive messages, chiefly in support of a possible mandatory electronic duty of care (edoc) system and a commitment to continue work on the PRN system. However, CIWM would have liked to see a much more proactive stance from government given the needs and opportunities around the development of a more circular economy.

“There was no vision or commitment in the response, and little evidence of Defra taking any lead; either in terms of cross-departmental working, co-ordination between the UK governments, or positive engagement with the commission’s recent Circular Economy Communication... With so much to gain, we want to encourage Defra to seize this as an opportunity for the economy and the environment, an opportunity which won’t be realised without government leadership.”

Future vision

Georgeson added: “In what are now the dog days of this government I see little point in dwelling on the limited vision and severe policy hiatus that has characterised the tenure of successive ministers and secretaries of state. Our focus now has to be on working hard as an industry to construct a consensual alternative policy framework and ensuring that all political parties understand the genuine potential of our industry as the general election looms.”

He concluded that there are an increasing number of reports on bringing about a circular economy and that “volume of recent output shows how hungry our industry is for policy change and how willing it will be to respond and invest further in accelerating the circular economy with strong government leadership and an ambitious policy framework”.

Read more about the government response to the EAC circular economy report.