CIWM launches Presidential Report 2025 ‘Lost Opportunities? Winning Back Materials to Drive the UK’s Circular Economy’

Ahead of his inauguration as CIWM President yesterday, Dr. David Greenfield launched the CIWM Presidential Report 2025, entitled ‘Lost Opportunities? Winning Back Materials to Drive the UK’s Circular Economy‘, which issues a call to action to capture and derive value from resources that are currently being lost to the UK’s economy.

Written by Dr Ryan Woodard, the report focuses on the urgent need—and real opportunity—for the UK to lead the transition to a more circular, inclusive, and resource-efficient economy. It highlights six commonly overlooked materials that are currently lost to the economy both in the UK and internationally. The same approach could be applied to many other material streams.

The report examines both cycles (renewable and finite) of the circular economy and explores three everyday renewable organic materials—cooking oil, seafood shells, and wool—and three essential finite mineral resources in the form of lithium, gallium, and tin. It provides an assessment of how much waste of each type is generated, why it is lost to the economy, and explores current and future management pathways.

It makes a series of recommendations for unlocking the potential of these resources and acknowledges that a coordinated, cross-sector approach is essential. The findings make clear that government, policymakers, business, and the resource management sector have a real opportunity to:

• Align UK policies to capture ‘lost’ resources
• Develop business cases to capitalise on these opportunities
• Align public sector procurement policies to support resource recovery
• Foster cross-sector collaboration
• Implement a National Material Data System
• Establish a cross-organisational, open-access research repository

Commenting on the launch, Dr. Greenfield said: “The UK uses more than 15 tonnes of virgin materials per person per year—most of which is imported. Our circularity rate is just 7.5 per cent. Over half of our household and municipal business waste ends up in residual streams. Globally, things are no better—circularity plateauing.

 “We cannot afford to waste what the planet and economy cannot easily replace. My report highlights both the challenges and opportunities we face, reinforcing the importance of rethinking not just how we manage ‘waste’, but how we define and prevent it.

 “During my year as CIWM President, I am committed to championing the development of a more sustainable and circular economy and facilitating the cross-sector collaboration needed to make this a reality. But knowledge alone is not enough. We need action—coordinated, courageous, and consistent—to make the transition from linear to circular. Let this be the moment we step up, reach across sectors, and turn waste from a symbol of failure into a source of possibility.

“Through improved design, collection systems, policy interventions, lifecycle thinking and circular innovation, there are significant opportunities to harness many of the currently lost materials beyond and including the six highlighted here, for the benefit of the environment, society, and the UK economy.”

Yesterday’s inauguration of Dr. Greenfield sees Tim Walker assume the role of Immediate Past President, with Vicki Hughes and Liz Parkes MBE becoming Vice President and Junior Vice President, respectively, and Charlotte Davies entering her second year as Early Careers President.