Data from the European Union has shown that the UK is among the best in Europe at resource productivity.
Resource productivity measures the relationship between economic activity through GDP and the consumption of natural resources. As a result, it shows how efficiently resources are used.
The data provided by Eurostat, may also be used as a key indicator of the progress being made towards a circular economy.
Resource productivity in the UK in 2014 worked out at €3.28/kg with only Luxembourg (€3.94/kg) and the Netherlands (€3.82/kg) achieving a higher score.
After the UK, Italy was most efficient at €2.89/kg then Spain (€2.69/kg) and France (€2.60kg).
Germany was only the ninth most efficient country in terms of resource productivity at €2.09/kg.
In the EU as a whole, resource productivity increased from €1.53/kg in 2002 to €1.95/kg by 2014. This was an increase of 27.8% in real terms.
However, it was not a steady increase. After remaining relatively stable between 2002 and the beginning of the economic and financial crisis, resource productivity in the EU increased considerably from 2008 to 2011, before dropping in 2011, and growing again since then.
With domestic material consumption falling considerably in Europe since 2008, but GDP growing moderately, this has led to the increase in resource productivity.
