On a voyage of recovery: a review of the UK’s resource recovery from waste infrastructure

This paper presents an overview of the UK’s Resource Recovery from Waste (RRfW) infrastructure system. It introduces the waste management sector and its evolution into a resource recovery industry supporting a circular economy, and then collates and analyses key sources of public-domain information to review our existing and planned infrastructure investment, regulation, capacity and potential new technologies. It concludes that most commentators predict a gap between capacity and demand for resource recovery, partly because planned developments are so heavily focussed on energy recovery; this in turn moves focus away from activities higher up the waste hierarchy such as recycling and reuse. Chronic and pervasive data deficiencies, political uncertainties surrounding continued adoption of EU regulations and fiscal issues related to public-private investment are major barriers to the sustainable development of a sector with real potential to provide modern jobs and services both at home and for export. The continued regulation of the sector via environmental agencies, rather than a dedicated regulator focussing on resource conservation, reinforces a cultural, political and economic focus on waste treatment rather than resource recovery. All these factors impede progress towards the professed goal of achieving a circular economy.