Passing the problem along

WRAP has accepted its voluntary producer responsibility agreement with the grocery sector - the "Courtauld Commitment" - must broaden its focus, according to an article on LetsRecycle.com

Giants like ASDA, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Coca-Cola are all signed up to the Courtauld commitment and are "cautiously optimistic" about hitting the first of their major targets.
This target is to halt the growth in packaging used by those who have signed the Commitment by the end of 2008.

However, the producer responsibility organisation Valpak has warned that work to reduce retail packaging waste currently focusses too much on primary packaging - the packaging that ends up on supermarket shelves. This sometimes means that producer members are having to use more packaging in the distribution of products to supermarkets, known as secondary packaging.

To widen the remit to focus more on secondary packaging will doubtless make the whole process more complicated, and the ever present targets that much harder to reach, but I see this as a good thing.


I feel that the Courtauld Commitment is reflective of the wider environmental targets set in today's society. Targets are important, but not if they mean simply pushing the problem along to the next step in the supply chain, in a desperate attempt to attain those goals. The issues need to be addressed from all angles, even if, unfortunately, this means more work for everyone involved.

On the plus side, WRAP is already starting this process, by aiming to expand the Commitment into the DIY sector. This makes a lot of sense considering the amount of packaging I received along with my wrench, the last time I entered a DIY store to do some home improvement.

A legacy of Olympic proportions? Continued.

Late last year I wrote of the potential legacy the 2012 Olympic Games may leave behind. Despite the numerous blunders that were being publicised at the time, a potential legacy of increased sporting activity among the youth of Britain nonetheless shone through.

Several months on I find myself attending the latest meeting of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Committee on the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. A wide-ranging discussion on a number of sporting issues took place, and I found myself once again thinking back to the anticipated legacy of these Olympic Games.

Some concern was voiced as to whether too much was being expected of the Games, and what they could deliver. After all, it was mentioned that there is little evidence the motivational factor attributed to the Games stays for long after the event has finished.

It seems to me, having attended this committee, that the momentum the London Games has given British sport could last well beyond 2012. A legacy needs to be worked for, and schemes such as the attention being paid to raising adult participation across the UK, is one such example. The thinking goes that increasing adult participation will in turn increase the amount of volunteers working in sport. Such an increase may also help the momentum of the London Olympics continue past 2012.

Lets hope the new Secretary of State for Sport, Andy Burnham MP, can continue the passion for sporting excellence and an Olympic legacy that characterised Purnell’s brief tenure.

Social Mobility?

I recently went to an event at Westminster entitled ‘The Inclusive Society? Social Mobility in the 21st Century’. Held to coincide with the publication of Progress,Community and Rt. Hon David Blunkett’s research of the same title, it was an extremely well-attended conference and question and answer session.

The extremely laudable goal of the Messrs Blunkett et al is to find ways of helping youngsters to do what their family, neighbours, and peers couldn’t achieve. That is, to train for and take skills-based jobs. Research suggests there is a permanent underclass of people in the UK who can’t escape the circumstances into which they’re born. As Mr. Blunkett put it ‘It is not about getting people into any job, it’s about getting them into the right job.'

That more progress is not made in this area may, in part, be a result of electoral politics. Those that the Inclusive Society research focuses on are not the same people who vote in their droves during a general election. Consequently the parties tend to focus on the issues that matter to the middle classes, such as hospitals. A further problem may lay in the fact that Members of Parliament are not representative of those without aspirations. For those who make up the focus of this research, it should come as some comfort that Mr. Blunkett is an exception to this.

The problem with large schools...

It is often said that small close knit schools are better for children to attend, not least because of the better discipline they offer.

However, an article in BBC News, recently showed Government Ministers rejecting this claim. When we say big schools, we are referring to around 1500-2000 pupils. Nearly one in every seven pupils - 488,900 - goes to a school of more than 1,500, according to government figures highlighted by the Conservatives. A government spokesman for DCFS said UK evidence indicated achievement could increase with school size up to a certain point. The idea is that large schools can be split into smaller units, while still benefiting from the enhanced facilities that many larger schools have. "The assertion that larger schools mean lower standards of behaviour is not supported by Ofsted inspection evidence."

The Conservatives, on the other hand, still hold that the worst discipline problems are found in larger schools. Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said: "In America, cities like New York and Chicago have significantly improved behaviour and standards by encouraging smaller schools where it is easier to foster respect and the head teacher is able to know the name of every pupil. "

Schools Minister Lord Adonis maintains that schools have increased in size because parents and children want to go to them. He thinks that the Conservatives would face a backlash if they tried to reduce school sizes, stopping children from attending the schools they want to.

An interesting dilemma because although the automatic reaction would probably be to assume small schools would be best. Research in the UK seems to show that this may not always be the case, as larger schools can still be split into smaller units while retaining the sporting and technology facilities of a large school.