I've decided to stick a few of the editorial columns I wrote while I was the editor here on this blog, for no other reason other than it's as good a place as any to keep a copy. I'm going to use the pre-subbed copy too. They don't all work but in every one there's a couple of bits and phrases I quite like and ultimately, that's what this blog is for:
This first one is from the June 2004 edition. The page one lead covered a giant statue made from old washing machines that was scheduled to be built down on the South Bank. The plan was to raise awareness for the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipmnt) directive, a bit of legislation designed to make appliance manufacturers responsible for collection and recycling of their products at the end of their life. As of today, it still hasn't been built. Why? "Lack of funding" say the organisers. "Bloody stupid idea" says everybody else.
Yeah, I know, not exactly riveting, but I have to stick the background in.
COMMENT JUNE 2004
Every week, without fail, I take a wander down to the carpark of my local supermarket and spend ten tedious minutes shoving newspapers and bottles into the recycling bins. I'll be honest, I hate doing it. The newspapers are always full of inserts which spill out onto the pavement and, being a stereotypical journalist, I always have loads of empty bottles and they're heavy and sticky.
So why do I do it?
The 'environment' is such an incomprehensible entity that it is always hard to imagine that anything we, as individuals, can do will make any possible difference to it. How are my newspapers and copies of TV Quick going to save a rainforest?
When I first saw the picture featured on the lead story of this month's issue my first thought was that it looked like something out of Jason and the Argonauts. A huge three-storey metal man clawing its way out the banks of the Thames with the head of a washing machine and mind of a microwave, poised to climb the London Assembly buildings with Ken Livingstone in its grasp like Fay Wray and King Kong.
Alas, this was not the story we had unearthed.
However, the real story behind the WEEE man is a genuinely important one. Just how do you make the public aware of the way a lengthy piece of confusing legislation is going to directly affect them?
The WEEE directive, while being possibly the most amusingly named of all directives (especially to deputy editors with the mind of a schoolboy) is one of the most important pieces of legislation involving the kbb industry in years.
The legislation, and the debates and controversies surrounding it, has been around for some time and as usual it all comes down to money. Just who pays for the collection and recycling of used appliances? Should it be the retailer? The manufacturer? The government? The local authority?
This has always seemed a strangely unnecessary debate to me. It's perfectly clear that whoever pays the direct cost, it will be the customer who forks out the extra cash in the long run. As Marco Milani, ceo of Merloni UK, says in an interview in this magazine: "Are we a charity organisation? If there's an extra cost there will be an extra price."
But as most retailers are well aware, the average UK consumer doesn't see it that way. We are a price conscious nation and it will be left to the poor salesman on the showroom floor to try and explain to Mr and Mrs Smith that the extra surcharge they're paying on the cost of their new washing machine goes towards not just recycling it, but probably also a fridge bought 20 years ago by somebody else.
The WEEE directive was, at the beginning of its short life, a bit of a disaster. The problem was that it received a typically British reaction - no one was prepared for it, and everyone expected somebody else to sort it out while they moaned about the cost.
But if we stop and think in the long term, this kind of legislation IS forcing manufacturers to think about the environment more than ever before. The waste produced by appliances is massive, 106m tonnes a year, and that's growing by 5% annually. It's estimated that the WEEE directive will cause a 25% landfill reduction by 2010 and 50% by 2015. Not bad.
Everyone concerned in the manufacture, distribution and sale of these appliances is involved in the implementation of those reductions and should feel proud of it, rather than seeing it as yet another piece of red tape tying up their business.
I still hate going to the recycling bins though, I'm keen but not stupid.
