Circular Economy Strategy: steady progress, but challenges remain
With the UK’s long-anticipated Circular Economy Strategy expected in the late autumn, there is a growing sense of cautious optimism within the industry in how this will shape future policy and spending commitments.
A sector ready for ambition, but will the strategy deliver?
The recent Circular Economy Task Force workshop, held by invitation only and centred on EEE emphasised that real momentum in the UK’s WEEE sector is already building at grassroots level. Businesses, charities, repair groups, and recyclers are shaping reuse and recycling solutions alongside policymakers. Their innovation and commitment show that the industry is not short of ideas; what’s lacking is a robust, coordinated framework and the long-term predictability needed to scale these initiatives system-wide. ReLondon’s ReCare project is a good example of a collaborative discovery project aimed at understanding the barriers to EEE reuse and repair – from consumer behaviour to skills development.
To bring these models and ideas to fruition, inclusive stakeholder engagement is essential. As independent experts and government consultation have shown, meaningful reform needs a multi-target framework starting at the product design stage, which extends beyond the current weight-based collection system to include consideration of preparation for reuse, awareness campaigns, critical raw materials recovery, and balanced producer responsibility across the value chain.
Stakeholders from reuse charities to local authorities are also calling for practical measures, such as removing VAT on refurbished electronics, piloting household collection schemes, and empowering a producer-led scheme administrator to drive accountability and performance. At the same time, there’s a growing recognition that consumer awareness and skills gaps in repair and reuse remain a barrier and addressing these will be key to scaling up the sector’s potential.
In short, the industry has ideas and passion, and community action is on the rise. Now we need the supportive policies, stable targets, resources, and effective governance to turn small scale innovation into systemic change.
From ambition to action: What the Green Paper might include
When the draft CE Strategy is published as a Green Paper for public consultation, the spotlight will firmly be on whether it can move beyond good intentions. In tandem with this, Defra's WEEE team are leading the development of a dedicated roadmap for the Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) sector, highlighting the importance of sector-specific focus.
Likely consultation topics include several longstanding requests from the sector:
- A major study on reuse, exploring how much activity is happening already (both formally and informally), and where the biggest opportunities for growth exist.
- Widening the scope of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to include reuse and charity sectors, especially around funding for treating non-reusable donations.
- Eco-design alignment with EU and international standards – a crucial step to future-proof products and avoid UK divergence.
- A stronger, more coordinated WEEE communications campaign to support behaviour change and public support.
- A review of collection systems and, critically, a ban on retailers sending usable equipment to landfill.
A strategy shaped by political realities
What’s clear is that the strategy will be shaped not just by environmental logic, but by political and economic realities. There is a firm steer from Government to avoid introducing any new burdens on businesses or added costs to households.
That pragmatic stance means bolder interventions, such as using fiscal levers like VAT reductions on reused goods, are unlikely to feature in this consultation. Whilst this is disappointing – it does reflect the current political climate more than a lack of ambition.
One step at a time
The concept of a circular economy is simple. However, delivering it is anything but, as circularity needs systemic and behavioural change to work. There’s now widespread recognition that this is a transformation that will take time, and the strategy is expected to present a sequence of incremental, achievable steps, rather than a sweeping overhaul.
Beyondly are working at the forefront of this challenge to improve UK WEEE system performance. Through Beyondly’s Fund for Change grant giving scheme, we have partnered with WRAP to understand drivers for WEEE collection performance in Europe along with gathering citizen insights on WEEE recycling and reuse behaviours.
For EEE and WEEE, some proposals could be implemented swiftly if backed during consultation. Others, particularly more complex or cross-cutting changes, will need further development and wider engagement. In May, we published a news article sharing Beyondly’s recommendations to the Circular Economy Taskforce and the renewed commitment to driving impactful circular economy and resource efficiency action across the UK. We outlined our vision for what an inclusive and just transition to a circular economy should encompass.
What’s next: CRM strategy on the horizon
Even though it has been delayed, the upcoming Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Strategy is a vital opportunity for the UK to rethink its approach to material security in an increasingly fragile global landscape. As modern technologies become ever more dependent on rare and strategically important elements, many of which are embedded in discarded electronics, the case for recovering CRMs from domestic waste streams like WEEE becomes not just an environmental priority, but a matter of industrial resilience.
While the Circular Economy Strategy sets the stage, it’s the CRM plan that could redefine how the UK values materials often treated as disposable. If ambitious and aligned across departments, it has the potential to shift policy from passive extraction to proactive resource stewardship. We need more than just a strategy: we need bold, cross-cutting action to turn our waste into a strategic asset.