At the beginning of November I wrote about the challenge of persuading people to recycle and reuse their surplus goods and waste materials, when the Government has appointed a Minister whose social background is so different to the people he is attempting to inspire and encourage. Lord De Mauley is a hereditary peer, the fifth person in his family to inherit that title and he used an article in the Daily Telegraph to suggest that we should all buy less gadgets and repair our TVs, rather than simply replacing them. He also criticised local councils, who are responsible for the collection of recyclable goods, suggesting they were not trying hard enough to separate out the various types of waste items in the collection processes. There are inevitably examples of good practice in certain places that need to be copied in places which are not managing so effectively, and one hopes that the Government plays its part to help share these examples across the country. However what was missing from Lord De Mauley’s suggestions, was any sense of understanding of how we as consumers are managing our part of the process of dealing with waste. A few days after his Lordship wrote his article, a report was published, which explained how consumers were responding to the challenge of recycling.

The report by a group called Green Redeem suggests that Nearly a third of people admit to not recycling as much as they could due to the fact that they can’t be bothered. According to the report 64% of us believe the Government doesn’t do enough to incentivise recycling. A quarter of us are concerned about the environmental future of the planet, but not enough to motivate us to recycle our waste and a similar number claim that we would recycle more if they were to get something tangible back for it such as vouchers, money or money off goods and services.

Since Lord De Mauley wrote his article, and the Green Redeem report was published, sadly much more powerful voices of Government and Opposition have been speaking about the Green taxes, Green levies and even we are told Green crap. It is inevitable that what is perhaps intended to send a ‘positive’ signal to developers and manufacturers that they can try a bit less hard to make their products sustainable, as long as they help to get the economy and house building programme moving, will simultaneously take the pressure of those who already feel that recycling is not so much fun after all.

It is irrelevant whose name is attributed to our environmental policies, and indeed frankly how rich their family is, or what titles they own. What is relevant is that our Government needs to understand that it cannot on the one hand tell consumers not to replace their TVs and to buy less gadgets, to tell local authorities to separate out the recycled goods, and on the other to talk about Green crap and roll back Green taxes. We need a credible Government on the environment as much as on other areas. One that understands its electorate and is willing to work with the nation as a partner and not as people to order about.