Infrastructure for the Circular Economy : the role of policy in system change

The concept of a Circular Economy has gained policy traction as a mainstream solution for preserving and renewing. This work sought to understand which policy instruments have been successful, might still be necessary, and are most likely in the future to deliver a high penetration Circular Economy for materials, wastes and associated energy. Waste related policy decisions in England over the past 20 years were reviewed, exploring the regulatory means that had achieved the current 44% diversion of municipal wastes from landfill. The hypothesis is that to achieve a far-reaching Circular Economy, at a greater scale, across different sectors and for a wider product range, suitable physical infrastructure (waste treatment assets) must be available to circulate those materials in the economy. Furthermore, the study set out to value financially and in terms of social and economic benefits that could be derived from a circular approach across the whole economy. We found the financial value to be significant at circa 1.5% of English GDP or  32bn and 72,000-175,000 jobs. It was demonstrated by calculation that DEFRA analysis (for England) underestimated the capacity gap for infrastructure by 11.3 million tonnes per annum in 2014. The policy findings were that the early implementation of blunt instruments such as a landfill tax and separate collection of recyclables did allow for diversion performance of approximately 45-50% recycling and composting, the remaining 50% of which was progressively treated by energy from waste rather than landfill. It is apparent that policies that drive system changes are effective in bringing about ecological transformations of how societies, economies, and governments operate at all levels. This ecological transformation is undoubtedly difficult to achieve since it will require consumers, manufacturers, regulators, policymakers, media, and business all to move differently and together, but nevertheless it is critical at a global scale.