Energy and Environment

The net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy, analysis by the CBI shows.

Between 2023 and 2024, the net zero sector grew 10.1% – three times faster than the 3.2% growth in the overall UK economy.

The analysis by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) found the sector now generates £83.1 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA), a measure of how much value companies provide through goods and services.

The report, commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, analysed the economic growth attributable to businesses working in net zero including waste management and recycling, green finance, renewable energy, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and energy storage.

With 10,625 businesses active in this sector, the renewable energy planning database – a database of renewable energy projects over 150KW to capture additional renewable energy businesses – was the largest component of the net zero economy.

Renewables and waste management and recycling were the next largest sub-sectors, with 7,138 companies and 5,428 companies, respectively.

The net zero economy is not only driving environmental progress but also delivering transformative economic and social benefits across the UK.

The report said: “The net zero economy is not only driving environmental progress but also delivering transformative economic and social benefits across the UK.

“With its high productivity, investment, and innovation, the sector is a vital pillar of the UK’s transition to a sustainable future.”

The analysis found that employment within the net sector has grown by 10.2% over the past year, with the net zero sector supporting the equivalent of 951,000 full-time jobs.

Jobs in the sector are also outliers for productivity, the analysis found, as each full-time role generates £105,500 in economic value, 38% above the UK average.

The West Midlands, Yorkshire & the Humber, and South West England were the largest net zero hotspots in the UK, collectively accounting for 16.3% of the net zero economy, or £4.7bn to the UK net zero economy.

Scotland’s net zero economy grew by 21.3% since 2022, contributing £9.1 billion in GVA and supporting 100,700 full-time jobs.

The analysis found net zero businesses attracted £23 billion in private investment since 2019, alongside £1.1 billion in Innovate UK grants.

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How much do you know about Defra’s new potential landfill policies? Watch our video explainer to learn what changes could be on the horizon.

Last week, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its response to a consultation on policies that will stop biodegradable waste from being sent to landfill.

The original Call for Evidence ran for seven weeks, from 26 May to 14 July 2023 and received 62 responses.

It sought evidence and data to help support the development of policies that will achieve the near elimination of biodegradable waste being sent to landfill from 2028.

Watch our video explainer to understand all you need to know about the long-awaited consultation response.

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Find out more about the Certificate today.

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CIWM Early Careers Ambassador Dr. Bryan Ng, founder and CEO of Repolywise, a start-up company transforming waste plastics to new plastics, demystifies the process of chemical recycling for plastics.

Only 9% of the plastic that has ever been produced has been recycled. The most frequently seen approach to recycle plastics is mechanical recycling, which shreds plastic waste into small pieces before re-melting (extruding) them into new products – but it has a few limitations.

Firstly, the waste stream needs to be thoroughly sorted. Secondly, due to unavoidable contamination during the sorting step, this can reduce the quality of recycled plastics, and cannot always be used for food contact.

The value proposition of chemical recycling to the waste management industry is to transform plastics into chemical feedstock as fossil fuel substitutes. This is done using more energy than for mechanical recycling, with the upside of virgin-grade recycled plastics coming when they reach end-markets.

What is the chemical recycling process?

Plastics produced from fossil fuels are called virgin-grade plastics, the cleanest and highest grade possible. In the production process, fossil fuels will be cracked (Step 1) into monomers. These monomers are small molecules such as ethylene, propylene, or ethanediol. Through polymerization, the monomers will be transformed into plastics (Step 2).

After consumption (Step 3) they become waste plastics, which we throw into our “mixed recycling” bin every day. Some portion of the mixed recycling stream will then be sorted and sent for mechanical recycling (Step 4).

The -lysis suffix from various chemical recycling technologies originates from Greek, meaning “loosening, dissolving”. When applied to the context of chemical recycling it indicates what has driven the degradation of plastics.

Pyrolysis is the most well-known example of chemical recycling. It is a process using heat to break the strong carbon-carbon bonds dominant in most of mainstream plastics (HDPE, LDPE, PP). This is performed normally in the absence of oxygen to avoid combustion.

The major product of such processes is an oily substance (pyrolysis oil), which is intended to be a substitute for naphtha. Commonly the pyrolysis oil are mixed with fossil-derived naphtha to be cracked into monomers for new plastics production.

Solvolysis, hydrolysis, enzymolysis are processes involving solvent, water and enzymes respectively. They targeting carbon-nitrogen or carbon-oxygen bonds (amide or ester linkage) present in polyester (e.g. PET) and polyamides (e.g. Kevlar). Common output of these processes are monomers directly useful for the production of new plastics.

Hydrogenolysis uses hydrogen molecules to break the carbon-carbon bonds present in mainstream plastics (HDPE, LDPE, PP).

It is also the technology I am working on – an “atomic scissors” to selectively degrade common plastics into propane, which can be used to build virgin-grade PP. It is a process of reduced energy costs and improved efficiency.

Chemical recycling technologies are designed to be complimentary to mechanical recycling, as it addresses some of the limitations of mechanical recycling.

It would take some time for the technologies to upscale and commercialise, before a fully circular economy can be created for plastics where no plastics need to be landfilled or incinerated.

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