Progress of the recycling and waste sector in the UK in meeting net zero

Emily Greene • Aug 07, 2023

Emily Greene, Policy Analyst with the Broadway Initiative, provides an update on the progress of the recycling and waste sector in meeting net zero.

On Wednesday 19th July, I attended an afternoon reception hosted by the Environmental Services Association (ESA) and Policy Connect in the House of Lords. The event focused on the progress of the recycling and waste sector in the UK in meeting net zero. The event also highlighted the launch of the ESA’s new report Supporting a Net Zero Recycling & Waste Sector: Policy Scorecard 2023.


The event had speeches from the Parliamentary host, Lord Teverson, Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Alex Sobel MP, Policy Connect’s Chief Executive Claudia Jaksch and Senior Executive Vice President of Veolia Gavin Graveson. 


A key commonality of the speeches was the sector’s need for clear policy that provides certainty for the sector as they navigate the demands of net zero.  The sector has pledged to invest more than £10 billion over the next decade in recycling infrastructure, however, this relies on long term certainty in the market. While government has published a robust policy plan in the 2018 Resources & Waste Strategy, key delivery has been delayed.


The event was an excellent opportunity for me to hear more about sector plans for net zero and the barriers, particularly those in policy, that the sector faces. This is a key focus of my own role in the Broadway Initiative as we are the secretariat of the Net Zero Council. A key delivery for the council is to support and help develop business sector net zero roadmaps. ESA’s Policy Scorecard  concisely lays out progress in key policy areas for the sector that will support efforts for a circular economy and decarbonisation in the UK.


by Broadway Initiative 22 Apr, 2024
BT marked Earth Day by announcing their partnership with UK Business Climate Hub, the one-stop-shop for UK SME net zero advice managed by Broadway Initiative. BT announced they were joining the UK Business Climate Hub partnership to help small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) to take steps to halve emissions by 2030, and pointed their SMB clients to the Hub's ‘Seven Steps to Sustainability’. The UK Business Climate Hub is the UK portal for SME net zero advice, developed with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the international SME Climate Hub and the UK’s main business organisations, energy networks, high street banks and professional bodies. The coalition is managed by the Broadway Initiative and endorsed by the Net Zero Council . Existing members of the coalition include Barclays, British Business Bank, British Chambers of Commerce, Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Electricity North West, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), HSBC UK, Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), Institute of Directors (IoD), Lloyds Bank, Make UK, NatWest, National Grid, Northern Powergrid, and Sage. 
by Broadway Initiative 25 Mar, 2024
The Broadway Initiative has launched the Nature Market Dialogue, the space in which stakeholders and influencers can collaborate on the future of UK nature markets. The launch took place on the 25 th March during a roundtable that marked the commencement of the Dialogue’s first workstream, a deep dive into nature market governance. Nature remains in decline. Biodiversity and ecosystem services continue to suffer despite increased public interest and funding, philanthropic efforts and government regulation. Conventional markets have proved incapable of driving investment in the natural capital on which human flourishing and planetary health rely, so nature markets have emerged as a solution. The Nature Market Dialogue is bringing together all the key voices to realise the potential for high integrity nature markets. The Broadway Initiative’s State of UK Nature Markets 2023 built on the work of multiple partners to identify three key challenges: governance, demand drivers and policy continuity. Supported by Esmée Fairburn, the Nature Market Dialogue aims to harmonise and synergise the excellent work being undertaken to crack these barriers and secure agreement on what needs to be done next. The Dialogue will develop a new consensus to respond to the government’s pending consultation on mobilising voluntary green finance and negating greenwash, building the necessary momentum to carry nature markets into the future. The first workstreams are intended to take 18 months to complete, but the Dialogue is here to stay. The Dialogue launched on the 25th March with the initiation of the governance workstream, at a roundtable in partnership with the Environmental Markets Board, Frontier Economics and Arup. Ministers, officials, finance experts and leaders from business and farming gathered to learn both from each other and from the mistakes of the voluntary carbon markets. The roundtable marked the beginning of a process that will surface a consensus among all market participants.  Peter Young, Broadway Chairman and Chair of the Nature Market Dialogue steering committee, said: ‘The Nature Market Dialogue is a vital intervention in the development of high integrity nature markets precisely because it is a dialogue. We are asking everyone with expertise or opinions to head to the project website https://www.naturemarketsdialogue.uk/participation to register their desire to participate. Only by building true, broad consensus and working in a co-ordinated way will we be able to unleash the potential of nature markets to reverse the biodiversity crisis.’ Annabelle Ong, a Director at Frontier Economics, said: ‘Frontier Economics is delighted to host the first Roundtable of “The Nature Market Dialogue”. We urgently need to find ways to accelerate nature recovery and Nature Markets can play an important role in facilitating private investment in nature recovery. I am looking forward to bringing together stakeholders from a wide range of sectors to discuss how we can avoid the pitfalls of voluntary carbon markets and create high integrity nature markets that deliver for the environment and society.’
The State of UK Nature Markets 2023 Cover
by Broadway Initiative 30 Oct, 2023
The Broadway Initiative has released a review of the progress towards establishing high integrity markets for nature across the UK.
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