Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

A QUESTION OF BALANCE

Resource scarcity will cause the UK economic problems and affect our quality of life.

So claims a new report that calls for action in managing our resources by measuring their flow through our economy.

The Mass Balance Project Report, launched today (28 February 2006) at the House of Commons, has been five years in the making at a cost of £10million and examines the impact that 63 separate geographical regions and industry sectors in the UK have on the environment.

Produced by the Biffaward landfill tax credit fund, the report seeks to demonstrate to Government the structure that can be implemented for gathering information on resource use, which will help inform future waste and environmental policy. It is a marked step forward in understanding the impact that Britain has on the world's environment.

"We are shockingly inefficient in our use of resources and the UK must start gathering and using data on the amount of resources that flow through our economy if we are to better understand and manage leading environmental issues such as climate change," Peter Jones, spokesperson for Biffaward.

"As an economy as little as 2 per cent of input resources by mass are retained after six months. The rest emerge as waste to air, ground and water. As we approach global limits to absorption of this pollution, it is no longer an option to ignore it. To manage this challenge it is the duty of Government to initiate a comprehensive data management and tracking infrastructure, which is transparent and credible. We owe it to future generations to establish frameworks as a matter of urgency."

"It is only by gathering data such as this that industrial sectors can work to reduce resource use and waste and Government can see how to effectively target policy designed to encourage resource sustainability."

"Just as better economic data has enabled governments to deliver stability and growth, better environmental data will put us on the right track towards better managing our resources and allow us to achieve a greater degree of sustainability."

"Unfortunately, there's currently no systematic approach to measure this data, which means that the UK and Europe is unable to properly account for resource use and waste."

Last week saw the release of the latest consultation on the UK Waste Strategy yet nowhere in that document is solid waste set in the context of
the really big environmental issues of global warming, global dimming, acidification and dispersed pollution, yet waste is at the heart of all of
these. Tracking of the Environmental Economy needs to catch up with tracking in the monetary economy.

The Mass Balance Project Report demonstrates how the Government can begin to take things forward. It isn't an answer, but it does highlight how we can begin to better manage our finite resources and account for their use.

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Further press information is available from Barry Walton
TEL: 020 8540 5045


Editors notes

Copies of the report are available from www.massbalance.org

The report examines resource flows through 60 geographical regions and industrial sectors including Great London, Scotland, Wales, Agriculture, Construction, Food & Drink and Government.

One of the industries covered by the Mass Balance Project Report is the magazine publishing sector, where it is revealed that in 2001 2.68billion magazines were published in the UK, using 1million tonnes of materials to deliver 0.74million tonnes of product to the consumer. The vast majority of this is virgin material. Up to 30 per cent of magazines distributed through the news trade are returned by retailers to wholesalers under the sale or return system and as a result 147,000 tonnes of paper are sent to recycling
mills and 25,000 tonnes sent to landfill.

Biffaward is a multi-million pound environment fund managed by Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT), which utilises landfill tax credits donated by Biffa Waste Services. The aim of Biffaward is to support projects that will
be of lasting environmental benefit, improve quality of life and foster 'vibrant communities'. To date, it has distributed more than £70 million to
such projects throughout the UK.

Biffa Waste Services is a part of Severn Trent Plc and is one of the largest single suppliers of waste management services in the UK. It collects,
treats, recovers and disposes of municipal, commercial and industrial waste nationwide and in Belgium.