our mission statement

Project Freesheet is a web based campaign and the main thrust of the project is to highlight issues and concerns raised by the ever increasing amount of free literature (aka freesheets) now being handed out on the streets of our cities around the world. By encouraging the public to upload and send in their photos of free literature waste we aim to illustrate the excesses of the free literature publishers through the creation of a visual petition (see the collage)

Project Freesheet will continue to exist for as long as freesheet publishers continue to disregard their responsibilities to our streets and the environment. We will campaign about the negative impact of freesheets for as long as products with such questionable environmental credentials are produced.

The main issues are -

freesheets are not free

1. We are paying for the clear up of the freesheets through our taxes.

2. Because freesheets are given away in such a homeless manner, and they have no retention value, they are abandoned on tubes, buses, the street etc etc. Presently just 20% of municipal waste collected is being recycled.

3. It is extremely unlikely that a freesheet made today is made from a previously recycled freesheet. Newspaper can only be recycled a maximum of 5/6 times before the fibers become too short, and less than 5% of magazine paper has any recycled content, and even these recycled content papers generally contain only 10-30% recycled fiber. Almost all magazine papers have been bleached with chlorine or chlorine compounds, which produce extremely toxic dioxin. It is estimated that approximately 90% of all magazines are discarded within a year of publication, and only about 20% of these are recycled.

As David Milliband stated in May, when introducing the 2007 waste strategy for England "Our key objectives are less waste, more re-use and recycling, more energy from waste and less landfill.”

What we at Project Freesheet seek to challenge is the assumption that free literature publishers have the right to derive income from their products at considerable cost to local councils and public transport companies in the clearing up of what is their litter.

how much more growth?

Free newspaper circulation now accounts for 30% of the European newspaper market, and 8% of the World newspaper market. Since 2001 free daily newspaper circulation has more than tripled from 12 million to over 40 million worldwide. That is a percentage increase of over 340% in 6 years. This equates to the use of over 9000 trees (allowing for 75% recycled content) every day.

As newspaper and magazine 'paid-for' sales continue to fall publishers are becoming increasingly attracted to the free publication model in their attempt to keep advertising revenues up by increasing circulation.

At some point we have to ask who is responsible for these free products, when they are being produced in such huge quantities that they are having a massive impact on our resources - fiscal and ecological.

what we stand for

1. An end to street vendors handing out free newspapers. We want to see all free newspapers distributed via 'dumb' vendors, or bins, so that the free papers are taken only by people who actually want them. This will limit circulation numbers to more realistic levels, so that our recycling infrastructure is able to divert as many papers from landfill as possible.

2. Promotion of Recycling - this makes good business sense, helping businesses to reduce both their costs and their impact on the environment.

3. We want to see the producers of the freesheets contributing more to the clean up costs. Currently legislation already exists to promote Producer Responsibility in the Packaging, Vehicle and Electrical industries. We want to see this same legislation put into effect for the free literature market.

4. According to some accounts more than 90% of materials extracted to make durable goods become waste almost immediately. In order to eliminate the concept of waste we need to design products, packaging and systems etc from the very beginning on the understanding that waste does not exist. Alternatives to tree-based paper products need to be promoted through industry sponsorship and patronage. See here for more information on why trees are not the only answer to our increasing appetite for paper products.

The stone age came to an end not for a lack of stones but because there were more superior technologies available. Where Bronze and Iron were able to replace stone, so synthetic paper will in time replace paper made from trees. The question is how long is it going to take for the newspaper industries to start looking at these new methods…?