I have to have a rant here. Not only is there the free Metro newspaper every morning, but now when you walk through London in the evening you're having London Lite and The London Paper thrust at you.
I've two issues here - it's more people getting in the way and more people day dreaming whilst reading when you're trying to get home; but more importantly for this site - what about the paper?
Yes, the papers may well be printed on recycled paper (or at least I hope they are as many newspapers have at least a high percentage of recycled pulp in them) but what about the disposal of these papers. I have a 20 minute walk through London each evening, and tonight I counted 1 paper recycling point, lots of newspapers shoved in bins and lots lying around at bus stops and on the ground. All of these extra papers (thousands of them) are just going into landfill. I wouldn't mind so much if the printers were providing recycling facilities, therefore completing the chain, but they aren't.
Does anyone know of any campaigns for this to take place?
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Well, the whole business of the waste created by free newspapers has taken on a different turn now..... apparently the Audit Bureau of Circulations is concerned now because of the number of unwanted papers that are dumped in bulk around the city leading to the circulation figures being wrong.
If that is what it takes to make the papers listen, then great - anything to reduce the waste. They do still need to be providing extra recycling bins around the capital, and why can't trains have a recycling bin at each door - they always have more than one bin, so just change one of them over.
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not sure if you're still following the thread you have created here but i thought seeing as you are all interested in this subject, I should bring to your attention my site called www.projectfreesheet.com
We are trying to bring this exact issue into the spotlight. We believe it to be an issue of producer responsibility and public awareness. We had a demo/protest event in June which went well - you can read about it here - http://projectfreesheet.blogspot.com/2007/06/wa...
Given that you are all keen observers of the free newspaper debate I would appreciate any feed back or support for the campaign
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Well I knew it was a lot of trees, but I hadn't realised that even a conservative estimate puts it at 9206 trees (see project free sheet above) that are felled each day to print the papers.
It's appalling....
I picked up a discarded copy of the London Paper on the train today and discovered they've even got rid of their green pages....
They are a complete waste. The producers have to be made to pay to process the waste.
Join Justin and upload your images (I'll have to take the camera into work tomorrow I think!)
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Thanks for your support!
I would like to see the papers contributing far more than their 'green' page in any case. Right now, they are not obliged to contribute to the clean up in any way; they simply do as little as they can get away with. TheLondonPaper are particularly stubborn when it comes to talking to the concerned organisations like mine and Westminster Council. And considering they can afford to lose £27 million a year on this free paper, you'd think they could afford to spend a very small percentage of that on the clear up of their own product.
I'm hosting an event in Sept/Oct - does anyone know a good organisation who has access to lots of volunteers?
I'm hoping to get 100 people to help out with the next walkabout.
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