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The Department for Business Innovation and Skills published a report where it estimated the value of the UK waste management sector. In other words, the contribution to the UK economy in 2010/11 according to the report shows the segment is worth £7.5 billion.
The study ‘From Waste Management to Resource Recovery: A Developing Sector’, released last week on September 1st 2011, was requested by the government to be an eye opener for businesses. It’s aim was to show businesses how to exploit the numerous opportunities available to make money with waste and recycling, as well as speed up the process towards zero waste.
Economic development consultancy Ekosgen, in association with Emma Buckman Associates, researched to define what exactly the waste management sector is and just how big it is.
According to the report the value of the UK’s waste management segment grew from £5 billion in 2009 to £7.5 billion in 2010/2011, generating a total of 128,000 jobs, up from the official figure of 94,000 in 2009.
As stated by the report: “There is limited data about the composition and size of the waste management sector and also its economic contribution to the UK economy. This study was commissioned by BIS to help address this gap and to identify the types of actions the Government could take to create the conditions for growth.”
In order to try and picture the industry as a whole, Ekosgen used data from the Environment Agency and also conducted an online survey of 1,251 companies, (representing 1% of the sector). Ekosgen also consulted industry experts from organisations such as the ESA and WRAP along with local authorities.
An interesting finding for waste management companies and councils is that by far the largest proportion of ‘Gross Value Added’ in the waste sector is generated from waste collection. Letsrecycle.com published some of the reports key findings or if you prefer to read the full in depth pdf report you can download it here.
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