£650m of valuable materials ‘ending up in landfill’

A coalition of business groups and environmentalists said products ranging from steel, wheat and rubber to “rare earth” metals necessary for making goods such as mobile phones will become increasingly costly, threatening UK productivity.

The coalition, which includes the manufacturers’ organisation EEF and Friends of the Earth, is demanding the Government develop an urgent action plan to preserve valuable resources, including policies to improve recycling and a ban on reusable materials going into landfill.

It comes after a survey by EEF found that four-fifths (80 per cent) of senior manufacturing executives thought limited access to raw materials was already a business risk and a threat to growth, and for one in three companies it was considered the top risk.

The groups warned the cost of raw materials had surged in recent years, with increases in prices expected to escalate as three billion people join the middle classes across the world, demanding more consumer goods and putting huge pressure on already-overstretched natural resources.

But hundreds of millions of pounds worth of reusable materials were being buried in landfill or burned in power plants that generate energy from waste, they said.

The groups urged the Government to ensure that resources are used more efficiently, a move which would create thousands of new jobs, boost the economy and protect the environment.

Ministers should create a new “office of resource management” to co-ordinate Whitehall action on tackling the resource crisis, set up a task-force to review targets and recommend policies to boost recycling and ban recyclable materials from landfill and energy from waste plants.

The Government’s existing resource security action plan, published in March, did not go far enough, they say.

EEF’s head of climate and environment policy Gareth Stace said: “We live in an age where demand for resources is surging with prices increasing and concerns about shortages mounting.

“Whilst the current action plan was a step in the right direction, it currently falls short of meeting the challenges we will face where obtaining new resources will become more difficult and costly.

“Government must now step up its ambitions and produce a wider plan of action that deals with the challenges not just now but in the longer term.

“This is vital not just from an environmental perspective but to ensure the long term sustainable future for manufacturing and the wider economy.”

Friends of the Earth resource campaigner Julian Kirby warned Ministers must take action to “prevent a growing resource risk becoming a catastrophe for our economy and the environment”.

He said: “The UK buries and burns at least £650m a year of valuable materials, wasting billions of pounds of business and public money.

“David Cameron must address the incoherent approach to resource security his Government has taken so far.”

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We are helping businesses meet the challenges in accessing the essential precious metals and other natural resources they need.”

The Department was working with businesses, she said, and welcomed the EEF’s contribution.