Read the CIWM Presidential Report 2025: ‘Lost Opportunities? Winning Back Materials to Drive the UK’s Circular Economy’ now.

Dr. David Greenfield launched the CIWM Presidential Report 2025 ahead of his inauguration as CIWM President at Terrace Pavilion, House of Commons.

Written by Dr Ryan Woodard, the report, ‘Lost Opportunities? Winning Back Materials to Drive the UK’s Circular Economy’, issues a call to action to capture and derive value from resources that are currently being lost to the UK’s economy.

Read an extract from the report’s Executive Summary below or check out the full version of the report here.

Executive Summary

We live in a world where valuable resources are readily squandered – lost.

Across the world a vast array of materials are discarded in residual waste, dumped or burnt. Recovering these resources presents opportunities to reduce the consumption of virgin materials, address resource security and increase UK productivity through domestic reprocessing.

This report highlights the global challenges of lost materials, and examines six of the many often-overlooked materials that are lost to the UK economy – all classified as critical minerals by UK government due to supply risks.

Used Cooking Oil (UCO)

Most UK household UCO is not recovered, instead entering residual waste or sewers, where it causes blockages. Biofuels are the main end-use market, but the UK relies heavily on imports of UCO to meet biofuel demand, with increased concerns over sustainability and fraud.

Emerging opportunities for UCO include biopolymers and road construction, with increased potential recovery opportunities through Extended Producer Responsibility and in-store collection points – both of which are already implemented in other countries.

Seafood shells

Globally most shells are treated as by-products and enter residual waste, and the UK alone generates 30,000 tonnes/annum of scallop, cockle and whelk shells.

A key emerging market is extracting natural polymers from shells for a range of applications including in packaging and textiles as an alternative to synthetic materials. Other opportunities include construction, conservation and agriculture.

Wool

With the income from wool sales no longer covering shearing costs, an estimated 20% of UK wool does not make it to market. Some countries discard wool as a by-product of food production.

Innovation is driving new markets including insulation, soil amendments, and sound absorbers – boosting demand and supporting wool prices.

Lithium

Approximately 87% of lithium is used in rechargeable Li-ion batteries, and non-rechargeable primary batteries. Recovering lithium remains technically and economically challenging.

Additionally, battery-related fires are a significant issue, costing the UK over £1 billion annually. With growing supply concerns, there is increasing investment in domestic recovery infrastructure. Businesses repurpose rechargeable Li-ion batteries for energy storage thereby extending battery life.

Potential UK policy opportunities to stimulate investment could include specific lithium battery collection targets and mandatory recycled content targets in batteries.

Gallium

Through its use in integrated circuits gallium is present in most electronic and electrical equipment. Despite its value and relative scarcity, no end-of-life gallium recycling currently takes place due to its use in dispersed small quantities, and the difficulty of separating it from other materials.

Whilst pilot / demonstration projects show it is possible to recover gallium, policy interventions are needed to scale-up these solutions.

Tin

Through its use in solder, tin is present in virtually all electronic and electrical equipment. Large amounts of tin are lost in the processing of e-waste with focus on extracting other metals. The small quantities of tin in products also present challenges to recovery.

Research shows promising results in recovering tin from end-of-life waste – the next step is to scale these solutions – policy interventions are needed to facilitate this.

The post CIWM Presidential Report 2025: Lost Opportunities? Winning Back Materials to Drive the UK’s Circular Economy appeared first on Circular Online.