To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to consult on (1) policy, and (2) legislative changes, to help establish a circular economy in the UK.
Answered on
4 April 2023
The Resources and Waste Strategy 2018 set out our plans to minimise waste, promote resource efficiency and move towards a circular economy. We want to prolong the lives of the materials and goods that we use and move society away from the inefficient ‘linear’ economic model of ‘take, make, use, throw’.
Turning to activities at the top of the waste hierarchy, waste prevention and reuse have significant benefits both environmentally and economically through value retention, jobs growth and potential money saving for consumers. Our ambition is reflected in the upcoming document, Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste (MRMW), which will constitute the new Waste Prevention Programme for England.
Through the landmark Environment Act 2021, the Government is delivering on commitments in the Resources and Waste Strategy bringing in a wide range of relevant reforms. Government has already consulted on a number of reforms including a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers, Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging and consistent recycling collections for every household and business in England.
We continue to collaborate with the UKRI-funded National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (NICER) programme to strengthen our evidence base on resource efficiency initiatives and will consider options to further formalise productive cross-government policy making and joined-up strategy to support resource-efficient circular economy business models in industry. This work will build on existing industry partnerships, cross-government research, and the work of the newly created Energy Efficiency Taskforce.
Additional policy development and legislative change to support the transition to a more resource efficient and circular economy is being taken forward across Government.