Free newspapers
Posted by ecosrights, 1112 days ago
If you want to learn about organic food, diapers/nappies or just how to be green then why not join today?
Latest commentsRachel by rachel
Re: Introduce Yourself by Globalkids
Lapland UK 2008 - Bewl Water by Anonymous
Re: Disposable Nappy Recycling by Anonymous
Re: Using Recycled Boxes Wh... by Mtmcc
Re: Re: Re: Lapland UK 2008... by Anonymous
Re: Dartford Summer Festiva... by jane
Re: Introduce Yourself by Akua
Re: Re: Free papers left on... by ecosrights
Re: Free papers left on the... by Anonymous
Reading article "Free newspapers" - Reply to this / 20 comment(s)
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? Reply to this
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? Reply to this
Comments
Latest eventsDartford Christmas Lights S... by ecosrights
Big Green Home Show by BuildStore
Draw Together: Art Group fo... by charlie
pottery painting and clay m... by rachel
BirthBody Birth Preparation by BirthBody
Barbican Family Weekend by ecosrights
Portsmouth Green Fair 2009 by TheVille
Dartford Summer Festival 2009 by ecosrights
The Gateway Primary School ... by ecosrights
The Little Green Gift Shop by littlegreenjosie
About ecolocal.co.uk
Ecolocal is free to join - why not register today? Our members can start discussions and comment on all the threads taking place throughout ecolocal.co.uk.Help us build the best source for healthy living and local news by submitting your tips, events and links so that we can all learn how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle.
And what about recycling facilities on trains - even without the free papers there is enough to warrant recycling on trains.
Reply to this comment
I agree, there are too many free newspapers.
TFL has launched a campaign urging commuters to recycle free newspapers. http://www.recycleforlondon.com/features/commut...
I personally think this is not the answer. We should encourage people to share the newspaper rather than recycle them. Read more at:
http://www.gilka.co.uk/2009/02/24/free-newspaper/
Reply to this comment
To put this into context - there are a couple of questions we need to ask:
1/ Why are these newspapers free?
The Metro newspaper in London originally started in Stockholm over a decade ago. Metro International now publishes free newspapers in over 20 countries across Europe, America and Asia.
Economically, they're able to give them away for free because the people who typically read them are young professionals during their commute, when most people tend to eek out as much from a paper as possible in order to make their journey less boring. This demographic have a high disposable income and the free papers are therefore able to sell advertising space for a premium, outweighing the cost of production and distribution.
Journalistically, they are able to give them away free because there is, or was, no competition. Local newspapers are free but uninsteresting. Mainstream newspapers are staid, out of date by the time they're printed and politically biased. The kind of people who read free newspapers are looking for a lightweight newspaper that doesn't challenge them and isn't pushing a covert agenda (if you accept that the only agenda in these newspapers is advertising).
However, there is a train of thought that suggests these free newspapers are there to protect paid for titles. Rather than allowing people to draw a comparison between the Metro newspaper and the Evening Standard, with the launch of London Lite we're now encouraged to draw comparisons between those two, making paid for newspapers less comparable.
2/ What happens to them?
It appears that 397,000 copies are handed out daily, from a print run of 405,000. Given that the free nature of these papers encourages a kind of recycling whereby passengers leave them on the train for other passengers to read, it's clear that no-one is throwing them away. Free newspapers are by definition disposable. This is where the real problem is - unlike paid for newspapers that incur a cost of transation, there is no end-point in the life-cycle of free newspapers. The Metro paper, which has a deal to be placed prominently in stations around London, is where we should look to see how the other free newpapers are going to act. Clearly, after several years, the train companies see no problem in absorbing the additional rubbish collection that comes with thousands of copies on unwanted newspapers on their trains. From my own daily experience I can tell you that free newspapers go into the same bin as every other piece of rubbish when the trains are cleaned at the end of each journey.
3/ What happens next?
What should happen next is positive action. The Govenrmnet should pass a law that forces free papers to be responsible for the resulting waste. Much like McDonalds received such bad press for the litter that would end up strewn in the vaccinity of their High Street restaurants, forcing them to create Litter Patrols to clean up after their customers, free newspapers should install recycling bins right next to the people who hand them out on station approaches.
However, what happens next is the same thing that has happened in Denmark. Inevitably, free newspapers in Denmark are now delivered directly to over half a million homes. If the advertisers are willing to pay for this, there's no reason why free newspapers in London aren't going to see the same kind of arms race, right up to your front door.
You can read a whole lot more about free newspapers in this interesting article from the Guardian G2:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1878301,0...
Reply to this comment
Let's hope creates a method for opting out of this. If I want to read news, I read it online. Why waste paper when you can read your news on the internet?
Reply to this comment
That's my view as well. Yes, it's convenient to be able to pick up a free paper for the train journey, but if they really insist upon doing this they must provide recycling facilities. Duncan is right, there should be legislation that stipulates the press houses should be responsible for the extra waste (we're actually paying for the clearing of it as taxes, so the papers aren't really 100% free even if you don't read them.)
Reply to this comment
I agree there has to be a solution for the extra paper waste. I never take a copy as I'd only throw it away.
Reply to this comment
There's a more rounder (less eco focussed) follow up to this topic here: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/blog/2006/09/19/b...
Reply to this comment
According today's Observer, the borough of Kensington and Chelsea is one of a number campaigning for limits to be put on the number of papers issued due to the additional waste they create around the streets.
This is good news, and I just hope that News International and the Associated Newspapers take this request on board and think of the consequences of what they are doing from something other than a commercial perspective.
Reply to this comment
Well further to my entry on Sunday, it's been announced that the papers are being formally asked to reduce the number of vendors on the streets for saftey reasons. They have been asked to reduce down to just 15 per paper instead of the existing estimate of 60. They haven't been asked to reduce the number of papers issued, but this quote from the Guardian is positive:
""We have noticed that our recycling bins have become fuller since the introduction of the new free newspapers," said Leith Penny, the director of environment and leisure for Westminster. "We have met with News International and Associated Newspapers to discuss the issues of recycling, litter and the numbers of distributors. I am sure we can arrive at a sensible arrangement that allows Westminster to keep its streets clean and the companies to distribute their papers," Dr Penny said."
Reply to this comment
I read something else about this the other day - apparently Camden Council are now complaining to the publishers about the piles of unmanned papers that are around the streets creating an obstruction.
I'm still not seeing any more recycling facilities around though!
Reply to this comment
Interstingly, I've just found this page on the Metro website:
http://advertising.metro.co.uk/brand/recycle.htm
And their take on recycling is, well...
"The best way to recycle Metro is put it in a recycle bin – and you can find these more and more in city centres around the UK. Look out for our sponsored ones in Newcastle."
It's not the most 'on the ball' answer to the question of recycling free, unwanted newspapers. I'll keep an eye out for special bins in London but why not allow the same people who give out all of the newspapers to act as drop off points too? I'd happily grab a couple from the train and hand them over to the chirpy people who thrust them at you from the concourse to your office.
That would be great, actually, because they're on the streets and no doubt have return the left over papers already, so giving them 'used' ones is just feeding them back into the chain. In fact, the only reasons that it won't happen is because it puts the cost/effort of recycling squarely in the hands of companies like Metro.
Reply to this comment
Well it now looks as if the evening free papers are about to go nationwide with www.newcastlepaper.com being purchased by one of the big press houses (I'll get the full details later). This means even more waste paper around the streets of more cities! Is it really having a positive impact on the press houses?
Reply to this comment
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.
Reply to this comment
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
Reply to this comment
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!)
Reply to this comment
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.
Reply to this comment
This morning things got worse.... I passed about 6 people giving out the Metro. I'm only hoping it's because of the Tube workers' strike and isn't going to become a daily occurence as well as the evening papers... please someone tell me it's a one off!
Reply to this comment
I came across a pretty scary statistic today.....
"London Underground passengers are discarding nine and a half tonnes of freesheets a day on three of the tube network's busiest lines, it emerged yesterday..... Northern; Picadilly and Jubilee"
apparently the amount of paper has tripled since the launch of London Lite and the Londonpaper.
Even more worrying is that the article refers to the papers being "binned" not recycled.... not that is NOT good.
Reply to this comment
I am Technical Director at a company (Excel Industries Limited), which manufactures insulation from recycled papers (Warmcel). I can tell you that many hundreds of tonnes of waste free papers are collected in the UK per annum and we use some of these. We are trying to approach Local Government in London, so that we can take a higher amount of this waste paper. It is not all bad news but a lot more could be done in order to collect a higher proportion of the waste free papers.
Reply to this comment
I'm pleased to hear it - it sounds like an excellent source of paper for you and a great use to put it all to. I've used Warmcel insulation in 2 houses now and much prefer it over the more conventional fibre glass rolls (not least because it's easier to use)
I hope you're successful in the approach to the local governments.
Reply to this comment