Day 075 - 17 Jan 95 - Page 36


     
     1   Q.   To make you think their concerns are consistent with your
     2        own?
     3        A.  Right.  They make -- we have a programme which is
     4        directed towards local authorities and other people
     5        responsible for the maintenance of -- I was going to say
     6        estates, but that might be misleading -- let us just take
     7        local authorities.  We also do it for private sector as
     8        well.  We have a programme that is called the people and
     9        places programme which is Local Authority led, community
    10        based, involving the whole community in together developing
    11        a programme that reduces environment/index.html">litter, improves waste management
    12        process, reduces squalor, and so on and so forth, that
    13        programme.
    14
    15        That programme is a contracted relationship between the
    16        Local Authority and the Tidy Britain Group.  The contract
    17        requires that the Local Authority appoint a project
    18        manager.  That manager needs to be trained and equipped in
    19        the particular skills that we expect to see him or her
    20        discharging.
    21
    22        That training programme is funded by Coca Cola through the
    23        Tidy Britain Group.  They provide resources for us to
    24        enable us to offer that to training programme free to the
    25        Local Authority.
    26
    27        That training programme is about the management of environment/index.html">litter
    28        and the rationale, if you like, is that the company in
    29        recognising that it contributes to the environment/index.html">litter problem
    30        should, in fact, also contribute in whatever way it can to
    31        the management and solution of that problem.  That seems to
    32        me to be entirely consistent behaviour in recognising a
    33        problem and then doing something to resource at least part
    34        of the solution.
    35
    36   Q.   What you have just described is, in effect, sponsorship, is
    37        it not?
    38        A.  Yes.
    39
    40   Q.   Right.  What I was asking about was what have they done to
    41        indicate to you that they are actually actively doing
    42        something about ---
    43        A.  About the problem?
    44
    45   Q.   -- about the environment/index.html">litter problem.
    46        A.  In the first instance, quite soon after my appointment
    47        as Director General, I prevailed upon them, for instance,
    48        to switch from detachable ring pulls on their cans to ones
    49        that were not detachable.  As a consequence of that, the
    50        whole sort of soft drinks industry changed because, 
    51        clearly, they are one of the major commissioners of 
    52        beverage cans from the various metal industries. 
    53
    54        They themselves are committed to, and though not in
    55        association with the Tidy Britain Group, but very much
    56        involved in the producer responsibility group that
    57        I mentioned earlier about the self-monitoring of packaging,
    58        and they also play a major role in the European recycling
    59        programme.  They also have in conjunction with the Local
    60        Authority in Adur, which is in Sussex, have developed there

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