New calls for government to improve resource efficiency

EEF and Friends of the Earth are calling for a new Office for Resource Management in government to co-ordinate the UK's resource strategy (via @James_BG).

I have no idea what such an office would be expected to do. Commodity prices are set by global markets. Businesses have an in-built commercial imperative to respond to these prices. The EEF's own survey recently told us that 75% of UK manufacturing businesses have already implemented resource efficiency measures or are in the process of doing so. Why do we need a new Government department to tell these businesses what they need to do?

Their submission includes the increasingly common reference to a decade of price rises wiping out a century of declines. But as I have previously argued here, the relative prices of commodities are in fact still low in historic terms. I can buy a (two and half times) bigger basket of commodities with my labour now than I would have been able to 30 years ago.

The timing of this call to arms is also strange to me. The EEF is quoted as saying 'prices are on an upward trend'. This is not in fact based in reality where prices are down in the past year.

Of course there is yet another call to ban recyclable material being sent to landfill. In my mind, the landfill tax escalator is already driving recyclable material out of landfill. If there really is going to be a resource crunch and prices really are going to rise then there will be no need for a ban as simple economics will lead to this material being recycled.