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

This paper presents an overview of the U.K.'s Resource Recovery from Waste (RRfW) infrastructure. It introduces the waste management sector and its evolution into a resource recovery industry supporting a circular economy, and analyses key public-domain sources to review existing and planned infrastructure investment, regulation, capacity and new technologies. Most commentators predict a gap between capacity and demand, partly because planned developments are heavily focused on energy recovery; this moves focus away from activities higher up the waste hierarchy. Chronic, pervasive data deficiencies, political uncertainties and fiscal issues are major barriers to the sustainable development of a sector with real potential to provide modern jobs and services at home and for export. Regulation of the sector via environmental agencies, rather than a dedicated regulator for resource conservation, reinforces a cultural focus on waste treatment rather than resource recovery. All these factors impede progress towards the professed goal of achieving a circular economy.