Significant amounts of valuable resources can be lost due to sub-optimal waste management, for example through landfilling, incineration, down-cycling, or non-targeted recycling. In this report, a number of waste streams have been considered and analysed, including end of life batteries, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), plastics waste, textile waste, and rubber waste. The material losses associated with these waste streams have then been considered and, to the extent possible, quantified. The waste streams have been chosen based on the following overarching criteria: content of valuable materials, policy relevance, environmental sustainability aspects, and mass or value.
The report suggests the key reasons for material losses are typically waste-specific and cross-linked, for example waste quality (heterogeneity) and the lack of cost-efficient technologies. The key findings on the causes for resource losses are the following:
Achieving real product reuse or high-quality recycling and closed loops will require improvements in the collection infrastructure, increased consumer awareness, and design of products for reuse or recycling from the start. This will also require an improvement in communication among stakeholders in the value chain (product designers, recyclers, end-users of recovered materials).