Is the industry being accurate?

Two thoughts collided over the weekend that had me pause to reflect on the issues of accuracy and “censorship” when putting things out into the public domain. Whilst clearing out some academic scientific papers at home, I was reminded of the rigorous scrutiny and peer review systems that papers undergo before publication.

Contrast this with the X Factor where (judging from the seemingly endless parade of the hopelessly deluded talentless and tuneless wannabes) there seems to be no screening or pre-selection criteria at all, making good (but not necessarily musical) TV entertainment.

Joy Blizzard is a waste initiatives officer at Shropshire county council as well as a nationally elected representative of a leading local authority organisation promoting waste reduction in the UK – the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC). Through her work as communications officer at LARAC she has become a regular on radio and television, pushing the recycling message to the public.

Where should the balance be struck between these two extremes of closely controlled publication and free for all expression when addressing recycling issues? I'm glad that out-of-the-recycling-box ideas can be aired and discussed especially as I am now seeing developments in recycling that I was told would never happen in the UK.

I'm also glad, that this column doesn't have to pass a rigorous academic selection panel before publication, and it's made clear that the opinions expressed are entirely my own! Most of us are wise enough to know that when in search of balanced views on waste and recycling issues, let alone local government, some tabloid papers are not necessarily our first port of call.

Rigour

But when it comes to more “serious” looking reports from think tanks, I do expect a certain rigour. Alas, at the time of writing this piece the web advertising around the New Local Government Network's report into recycling was still “citing research that currently only 20% of all household rubbish thrown out in Britain is recycled”. (Since finishing this piece and sending a second e-mail to the NLGN it seems that the error has finally been corrected.)

I haven't got a problem with people airing even loony ideas (brace yourselves for lots of these with an election looming). After all, it's the oddities that make the X Factor. But when it comes to recycling facts and figures, both the industry and the public need and deserve accuracy.

The household recycling rate has been well over 20% for several years and the data has been in the public domain for just as many. So as they say on the X Factor jury “it's a “no” from me” and the report should be bundled away by a burly bouncer without further ado.