The UKRC has opened a new consultation for a Resources Sector Deal and the responses will help shape further work and the final proposed Sector Deal, which UKRC intends to put before the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) at the end of the year.
Chair of the UK Resources Council, David Palmer-Jones, said: “A Resources Sector Deal, the UKRC believes, will catalyse greater investment in resources led infrastructure, all helping meet the UK government’s stated ambition of more ‘clean growth’ and contribute to the decarbonisation of the supply chain and Government Climate Change targets. The manufacturing sector is expected to be one of the key beneficiaries from a wave of resources-led infrastructure investment, as the sector is intrinsically linked through the circular economy with the many sectors for which we in the recycling and waste management industries provide services, products and secondary materials.
The UK has become the first G7 country to legislate itself into becoming a net zero carbon area by 2050. The resources and waste sector has a key role to play in delivering this ambitious goal and the chemicals sector has an intrinsic role to play in helping the UK create a world leading secondary resources sector.
Our vision is that by 2030 we will lead on innovation and growth opportunities – designing out waste wherever possible and capturing and utilising all our remaining recoverable resources for the betterment of society. We will create a world-leading secondary resources sector that will refine and process discarded products, packaging and assorted materials and transform them into inputs for our major industrial sectors and appropriate export customers, using innovative new technologies, which can be disseminated around the world.
We will be looking to the manufacturing sector for new partnerships to help develop and implement these innovative technologies and processes which will add value all the way along the supply chain until the final refinement and processing of materials. This will allow for ever greater levels of resource productivity and resource recovery – both by the manufacturing sector and for the sector’s benefit – and their transformation back into the production cycle as a range of new input materials for anew generation of sustainable manufactured products fit for end-users in a more circular economy.
UK Resources Council, David Palmer-Jones added: “The resources and waste sector is a very broad and diverse sector, touching many other sectors through the critical services we perform. With a large number of stakeholders in our sector and associated sectors we serve, and in order that we can capture as much as we can of this rich experience and insight, we encourage individuals and organisations to have their say, and to help shape this proposed Sector Deal (to be submitted to BEIS in early 2020), which could help the resources and waste sector fully unlock its true economic potential.
A key component of any successful Sector Deal will be delivering the conditions that support the huge investment necessary to achieve the longer-term ambitions of a circular and sustainable economy and net zero carbon by 2050.In order that the secondary resources sector can meet the demand for secondary resources, energy and fuels from a number of key UK industrial sectors, new and innovative processing technologies and services must be developed, tested and commercialised.
Current investment barriers can slow or stall this process and there is a clear case for the sector and Government to work together to overcome them, creating investment-ready conditions and ultimately stimulating the transition to a resource efficient economy.
A successful Sector Deal will inspire new UK waste and resources infrastructure that increases resource productivity, enhances our natural capital and delivers a growing proportion of the UK resources footprint from secondary, waste derived commodities in line with UK industry demand.
The main document and consultation response form are available here: https://sectordeal.anthesis.network/event-survey/ukrc-wider-consultation-for-the-resources-and-waste-sector-deal
