The Green Alliance study, due to be published in October, will focus on three key resources – water, nutrients and raw materials – and examine the advantages and disadvantages of using pricing to improve their circulation in the economy.

The findings will feed into a conference on resource security that Green Alliance is holding in association with the CBI in the autumn.

Speaking exclusively to edie, Green Alliance’s senior policy adviser, Hannah Hislop, said the study, which is sponsored by SITA, will consider a number of initiatives that will bring scarce resources back into the economy rather than be disposed of as waste.

She added that the conference would also draw on the findings of the European Commission’s forthcoming resource efficiency road map, which will be published in September.

Hislop expressed the hope that the practical measures that emerge from the conference debate, together with the report, would be used to inform Defra’s resource security action plan, which is due to be published in February 2012.

“We know that our linear economy discards valuable materials because of a series of market failures,” she said. “This report examines these failures and suggests ways of tackling them.”

Nick Warburton

Action inspires action. Stay ahead of the curve with sustainability and energy newsletters from edie

Subscribe