A new Government plan to reduce waste across industry has been unveiled by Environment Secretary Steve Reed.

Reed vowed that the Government will provide the direction and certainty for businesses to plan for the nation’s transition to a circular economy and an end to the “throwaway society”.

To kickstart the move, an independent Circular Economy Taskforce, chaired by Andrew Morlet, former CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, was established and now the Government has confirmed the first five priority sectors that the taskforce will focus on to make the greatest difference – textiles, transport, construction, agri-food and chemicals & plastics.

Delivering on businesses’ calls for more Government leadership, the Taskforce will now work with these sectors to create a series of specific roadmaps to improve and reform the approach to using materials, underpinned by a Circular Economy Strategy which will be published in Autumn. Both the roadmaps and Strategy will give businesses certainty to plan and the confidence to build and invest in new infrastructure.

Reed said: “It’s time to end Britain’s throwaway society – the status quo is economically, environmentally, and socially unsustainable. Moving to a circular economy is a pivotal moment for British businesses to innovate, grow and lead the world, so we can slash waste and strengthen supply chains.”

The sectors were chosen as the first ones for intervention after the Taskforce analysed extensive evidence, which found they had the best potential to generate major economic gains, while protecting the environment. This comes as senior officials from the Government, Dutch government and City of London Corporation came together at Mansion House to set out a path towards closer working to finance the move to a circular economy.

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