The Environmental Services Association (ESA) has called for the Treasury to help create the right policy environment to generate the investment needed into the waste and recycling sector.
Without the intervention to boost recycling rates, the UK will be left with up to six million tonnes of waste by 2030, according to the ESA.
Although local recycling rates are anticipated to be 15% higher in 2030, there will remain a problem that there will be no treatment facilities for the waste created by homes and businesses unless there is more investment in infrastructure.
ESA has called on HM Treasury to work with Defra to help drive UK recycling.
According to ESA, stronger measures to address designed packaging and encouragement of recycled materials by manufactures would create green jobs and growth.
It says that areas including Green Public Procurement, lower VAT for recycled content, and eco-design rules should be part of the measures to help improve the quantity of recycling.
However, ESA believes that long-term certainty of landfill tax and funding to tackle waste crime are also vital to producing a stable investment climate.
ESA executive director Jacob Hayler said: “Too many of our resources are wasted and we need much stronger action to improve packaging design and encourage the use of recycled materials in products.”
“Our industry has made huge strides in raising recycling and putting our discarded resources back into productive use. But without intervention, we are worried that decades of progress in managing our resources will begin to reverse. However, with the right policy support, we can extract value from waste to safeguard our natural capital, boost resource productivity, and create thousands of jobs around the country.”
