The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) has called for changes to government policy and investment to help UK industry recover and reuse more materials.
The institution said businesses lacked the financial incentives, policy certainty and infrastructure needed to adopt circular practices at scale, despite many engineering solutions already being available.
Its report, Moving to a Circular Economy in the Process Sector, draws on four webinars held between February 2025 and April 2026, covering industries including food and drink, pharmaceuticals, water, chemicals, and oil and gas.
IMechE urged the government to consider resource taxation, recycled-content requirements and circularity standards in public procurement to improve the commercial case for recovering and reusing materials.
Government needs to intervene to align a new circular economy with the UK’s Industrial Strategy and Net Zero objectives
It also wants clearer regulation and predictable carbon pricing, alongside investment in resource-recovery hubs, water recycling and carbon transport networks. The institution highlighted industrial clusters where businesses can share resources and use each other’s by-products.
Further recommendations include considering extended producer responsibility as a policy tool, harmonising standards for secondary materials and streamlining permitting for circular processes.
The report calls for nationally recognised indicators and reporting frameworks aligned across the UK nations, alongside training to improve circular economy skills. Among the opportunities identified are nutrient recovery from sewage, heat recovery from wastewater, food redistribution and packaging redesign.
However, it cautions that focusing on individual resource streams can create environmental trade-offs. Recovering resources from waste can require additional energy, while some carbon reduction measures can increase resource consumption.
The report argues that improving recycling alone will not deliver a circular economy. It says circularity needs to be considered when products, plants and infrastructure are designed, including provision for disassembly and reuse, because retrofitting existing systems can be more difficult and costly.
Kahu Te Kani, senior policy adviser at IMechE, said: “Government needs to intervene to align a new circular economy with the UK’s Industrial Strategy and Net Zero objectives.”