Giving evidence to MPs yesterday, just a few days after the launch of the Rethink Rubbish Christmas campaign, Mrs Beckett highlighted the importance of waste awareness in controlling waste growth rates in the UK.
In Parliament to respond to the Environmental Audit Committee's report, Waste: An Audit (see letsrecycle.com story), she said raising public awareness of the need to reduce the waste they produce was a viable alternative to variable charging schemes.
Mrs Beckett said: “If you can get people to change their behaviour by providing facilities and raising awareness, why not go down that route instead of using rewards or penalties.”
But explaining that the 500,000 in government funding for waste awareness had gone to the Rethink Rubbish campaign via the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), Mrs Beckett admitted: “I can never remember its name.”
Commenting on the Secretary of State's remarks after the hearing, the chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, Peter Ainsworth MP, said: “Margaret Beckett couldn’t even remember the name of the national waste awareness programme, Rethink Rubbish. Well, that doesn’t reflect very well on the effectiveness of the campaign.”
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Rethink Rubbish has the support of over 300 local authorities and a variety of retailers, and forms the focus of WRAP's responsibility for raising awareness of waste reduction and recycling among the public.
The Secretary of State's gaffe came just a few days after the Rethink Rubbish Christmas campaign was launched in Westminster on Friday by TV weather presenter Sin Lloyd as well as Mrs Beckett's environment minister, Elliot Morley.
 Elliot Morley and Sian Lloyd launched the Rethink Rubbish Christmas campaign in Westminster |
The festive campaign is one of three major outlets for Rethink Rubbish's WRAP funding this year, and aims to reduce the estimated three million tonnes of waste produced over the Christmas and New Year period.
Commenting on the campaign, Mr Morley said: “We all generate more rubbish over the holiday period, and all those festive parties can add up to a third more cans and glass bottles alone.”
The Christmas programme will see Rethink Rubbish working with Alcan, British Glass, Corus, Recoup and the Woodland Trust as well as its local authority and retail partners.
In the New Year, Rethink Rubbish will be carrying out an evaluation of the effectiveness of its promotional campaigns.
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