Environmental campaigners have said privately… it’s just something that they don’t want to do because it will make them seem like dirty hippies advocating that we go back to wearing hair shirts.
The UK has the second highest level of e-waste per person in the world, and the UK’s material footprint is over twice the sustainable limit identified by the UN.
However, if the UK could reverse its consumption habits and create a circular economy, it would benefit not only the environment, but also bring a £25 billion boost to the UK economy by 2035, according to a cross-party group of MPs, backed by organisations including think tank the Green Alliance, professional body IEMA and Zero Waste Scotland.
A circular economy focuses on reducing consumption of finite raw materials by keeping materials in use through reuse or recycling, rather than the current linear model of ‘take, make, dispose’, where resources are extracted, manufactured into products, and then discarded as waste.
Jobs
The MPs, from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Environment, made the point in a six-step plan advocating better use of resources. It wants the plan to feed into the government’s circular economy strategy, which is expected to be published in the autumn.
They argue that consumers should have a “right to repair” to ensure products can be fixed when they break. This would especially help those on low-incomes, who have been hit the hardest by the cost-of-living crisis.
The plan notes that a much more ambitious, economy-wide approach to repair, remanufacturing, reuse and recycling has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next decade.
To realise this potential, the UK needs to boost skills in repair, remanufacturing and recycling, it said. For example, boosting the number of apprenticeships in semi-skilled professions, which do not require a degree or advanced training, will make it easier for people to get jobs in circular practices.
Politicians from all parties have endorsed the asks, from Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay, Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage, Labour’s Uma Kumaran MP and Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse.
EU repair
Dame Caroline Dinenage, Conservative MP for Gosport, said: “The circular economy has the potential to boost regional growth and leave Britain cleaner and greener for our children. Increasing the size of the repair and reuse economy, and promoting these skills at a local level, must be central to reforms.”
In April 2024, the EU adopted a ‘right to repair’, which aims to reduce waste and boost the repair sector by making it easier and more cost-effective to repair goods.
Manufacturers are obliged to inform consumers about their rights to repair, and provide timely and cost-effective repair services. Goods repaired under the warranty will have their legal guarantee extended for a year.
Once this has expired, the manufacturer is still required to repair common household products, which are technically repairable under EU law, such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and smartphones.
Environmental campaigners have said privately… it’s just something that they don’t want to do because it will make them seem like dirty hippies advocating that we go back to wearing hair shirts.
The premature disposal of consumer goods across the EU produces 261 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions, consumes 30 million tonnes of resources, and generates 35 million tonnes of waste each year, according to the European Commission.
Consumers also lose about €12 billion yearly by replacing goods rather than repairing them. The new rules are estimated to bring €4.8 billion in growth and investment within the EU.
Overconsumption
The MPs also recommend that the UK sets a long-term goal to bring resource use within planetary boundaries by 2050, with interim targets along the way, similar to how the UK’s carbon budget sets interim carbon reduction targets as the UK heads towards net zero.
This would provide long-term certainty in businesses to invest in the changes needed, it said.
Libby Peake, senior fellow and head of resource policy at think tank the Green Alliance, said that the need to tackle over-consumption did not seem to be a message that many were willing to take to the public.
In a podcast in April, she said: “We had an event where Ed Miliband [climate change secretary] was talking about climate policy, and someone in the audience asked him ‘should we just be consuming less?’
“And I would have thought that his answer could have been something along the lines of we need to talk about consuming differently, at the very least. But his answer was just, no - it’s clearly not a vote winner,” she said.
Electricals
Even major environmental campaign groups who campaign on issues such as plastic pollution or deforestation do not necessarily want take it on, she added. “They’ve said privately… it’s just something that they don’t want to do because it will make them seem like dirty hippies advocating that we go back to wearing hair shirts.”
The government’s Circular Economy Strategy is expected to focus on key sectors such as construction, textiles, chemicals and plastics, transport and agri-food. A roadmap will be developed for each in order to improve material use and promote sustainable practices.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) did not respond to whether there would be a right to repair in the upcoming circular economy strategy.
He said: “This government is committed to moving towards a circular economy in which we keep our electricals in use for longer, accelerate the path to net zero, and increase investment in critical infrastructure and green jobs.
“We welcome and share industry’s vision of longer-lived electricals and as part of our Circular Economy Strategy there will be a roadmap to increase the reuse and recycling of electrical equipment,” he added.
This Author
Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for The Ecologist. Find her on Bluesky @catearly.bsky.social.
