In her first duty as Chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee, Mary Creagh MP opened the event highlighting the growth, competiveness and environmental benefits that a successful Circular Economy Package could provide.

She acknowledged the mixed reactions to the package’s publication but pointed to Defra Minister Rory Stewart’s recent contributions during House of Commons oral questions “that the Circular Economy Package is absolutely central” to the UK’s environmental and economic agenda. The package has played a role in her Committee’s ongoing inquiry into EU environmental policy making, the views for which will be in a new report to be published in the next 6-8 weeks.

Peter Aldous MP, Member of the Environmental Audit Committee, identified circular economy discussions as having moved forward as it becomes more “central to the whole economic debate”.

He noted that the concept of the circular economy is wide reaching and that people are realising that resource management is much more than just waste disposal. Mr Aldous added “it’s not the key for immortality but if we get this right, the grave [for resources] doesn’t exist”.

Joan Walley, Chair of the Aldersgate Group, stressed that we needed to ensure Brussels had a clear understanding of how UK businesses have received the package and where improvements need to be made.

A drive towards greater resource efficiency could deliver annual net savings of €600bn for businesses in the EU by 2030 and reduce total annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2-4%. “The question today is how can we ensure that the latest Circular Economy Package achieves this goal. What are the Package’s implications for the UK business community and where does it need to be developed and made stronger?”

Delivering the keynote speech, Daniel Calleja, Director-General of the Environment for the EU Commission, asserted that the circular economy “is one of the most important issues that Europe will be facing in the coming years…and is one of those areas that we absolutely have to get right”.
 
Europe currently imports six times more than it exports. “Every single resource counts…In the manufacturing sector 40% of costs is resources. If we are able to concentrate on the 40%, we can make our businesses more competitive” in the international sphere.
 
After outlining the main features of the Circular Economy Package, Mr Calleja stressed that the circular economy is not about just regulation and “what the Commission wants to put on the table is an intelligent mix of measures”. He noted, in particular, the importance of voluntary SME support schemes and measures to support the use of secondary raw materials as well as the development of ecolabelling, ecodesign and green public procurement standards.
 
Mr Calleja highlighted the importance of innovation in order to support the development of a more circular economy and stressed that the Commission wanted to harness that. “Europe has the largest innovation programme in the world” with nearly €80bn of funding available until 2020. For the years 2016-2017 the Commission has launched a call for ‘Industry 2020 in the Circular Economy', worth over €650m, and it is devoting slightly below €3bn for research and innovation for climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials in the 2014-2020 period. This funding is additional to the European Structural and Investment Funds, which will be granting priority to projects linked to SMEs and the circular economy.
 
“If Europe goes in this direction and can build a strategic alliance with all the stakeholders – business, member states, national parliaments and other European institutions – we have a great opportunity ahead of us and this is all about being more sustainable, creating more growth and more jobs.”

Mat Roberts, Director of Sustainability at Interserve, noted that his organisation has a target of 50% carbon reduction by 2020 and “in order to hit that we need the Circular Economy Package”.

He welcomed the package as “an excellent step forward” but emphasised that the final version must ensure viable material is not classified as waste too soon.

Mr Roberts explained that, in the world of construction, clearing a site has shifted from an act of demolition to one of decommissioning and dismantling. The materials gathered from this process have value and “it’s important that [secondary] material is able to cross borders. If we take something to pieces in Portugal, we will want to reuse some of that material in Spain or France or Italy or wherever we want to without huge amounts of additional regulation, reclassification and paperwork”.

The package is a “good opportunity for responsible business to demonstrate their capabilities and drive innovation and ingenuity”.

Joanna Yarrow, IKEA UK&IE Head of Sustainability, agreed that the package is a “good step in the right direction”, one that is in line with where IKEA wants to move into as a business.
 
Ms Yarrow noted that retailers will need to move towards more circular models in order to thrive but harmonisation across the member states will be particularly key. “As a retailer working in a range of countries, IKEA largely designs products and services that would ideally be similar in all markets”.
 
The debate on circular economy cannot just focus on production but must look at changing consumption patterns as well. “It is great to see the Commission intervening in this area but it’s important to be clear that we need close involvement from decision makers, policymakers and the general public. These are the consumers and users who are going to be equally important partners in closing the loop”.

Jonathan Garrett, Director of CSR at Jaguar Land Rover, noted that the package’s action plan is positive but “let’s really get down into the detail…and go beyond just targets”.

He noted that a key question is how to incentivise innovation and welcomed the Commission’s promise to boost innovation funding to €1bn. Mr Garrett explained that the package needs to be more than just about compliance with regulatory goals but also about “funding to improve our competitiveness. Companies want to innovate but a barrier is short term cost pressures”.

To move the circular economy forward, there’s a need for demonstration projects. Jaguar Land Rover has had great success with aluminium, achieving up to 50% recycled content in their cars. This saved 30,000 tonnes of aluminium last year, the life cycle impact of which equals their carbon footprint for manufacturing operations. Mr Garrett called for examples to be developed with other materials and stressed the need “to press the accelerator to develop new products and materials…We have to incentivise this innovation”.

Inder Poonaji, Director of Sustainability and SHEQ at Viridor, noted that we’re at a critical point with our resources and “if we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail the circular economy”.

Viridor has partnered with the Scotch Whiskey Association to open one of Europe’s most advanced recycling facilities in Newhouse, North Lanarkshire. The facility, a £25m investment, is one of only three such facilities globally and ensures 100% of Scottish packaging glass is fit for use within a sector committed to making 40% of its packaging from recycled materials.

He welcomed the Commission’s ambition for a more circular economy but stressed the need for the Commission to flesh out the details in some of the key initiatives contained in its Action Plan such as the proposal to develop eco-design standards for resource efficiency. He mentioned the importance of a common implementation of the key aspects of the package across the EU but cautioned that the final version must recognise the realities of 28 different Member States that are at very different levels today in terms of resource efficiency, as well as the necessity of leadership and collaboration, particularly along the entire supply chain.