A3.9.3 UK Action
The UK Response to the European Strategy is a UK position paper (or ‘non-paper’ as the EU call it). This was issued on the 5th April 2011 and is available here: A3.9.3 UK non-paper resource-efficient-europe
The paper details how the United Kingdom considers resource efficiency as critical to delivering green economic growth and reducing resource risks. The paper outlines four key challenges for the roadmap to address:
Some key issues highlighted in this report are that to enable a Resource Efficient Europe, we should:
- Focus R&D to improve resource efficiency.
- Improve access to finance.
- Influence business behaviour and that of consumers and investors.
- Develop coherent standards for resource efficiency.
- Develop a set of indicators, based on a life-cycle perspective, which should cover different pressures separately.
In the summer of 2012, LetsRecycle.com reported that various industry and environmental groups prepared a joint letter to the Government warning of a pending resource crisis. They claim that businesses are at risk due to limited access to raw materials and that if the UK does not develop a strategy to ensure that raw material that is currently being landfilled or incinerated is recycled and put back into production, the consequences for the UK economy will be ‘severe’.
The full article is available here: http://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/waste-management/government-resource-policy-2018incoherent2019