The prediction comes in a report from environmental consultants and financial advisors analysing the growing waste industry. The report details how the industry has already invested more than £3.8billion over the last five years, primarily in recycling facilities, collection fleets and depots.
The waste industry will play a key role in the “circular economy” where a product at the end of its useful life goes into the waste cycle where it becomes a secondary resource. In practical terms, this means waste management companies collect and treat the waste either for recycling or returned to the economic cycle as recovered energy.
Corporate investors and private equity firms are leading the way in ploughing funds into the industry, through both capital projects and financial investment in individual companies. Meanwhile, the UK Government-backed Green Investment Bank is also looking to bring a further £15billion of private investment into low-carbon industries and the waste industry. It has identified waste as one of the priority sectors it should finance and has an initial capital allocation of £3billion.
The outlook for the waste industry remains remarkably positive and upbeat, despite the gloomy economic conditions currently prevalent in the UK. Government support for waste management projects and initiatives makes the sector attractive to investors.
At the moment in the UK, around 40% of household waste is recycled while 52% of commercial and industrial waste is recycled or reused. A target of recycling 50% of household waste by 2020 has been set while the Government is committed to reducing carbon impacts.