On the 11 December 2008, European political leaders will decide what the political response to global warming is going to be. Last year, they agreed to a 30% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Now, with the downturn in the economy, that deal is under threat and time is running out fast.
As a result, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund through the coordination of the Climate Action Network (CAN), have formed the campaign Time to Lead .
Time to Lead is a movement that urges European citizens and organisations to act by contacting local legislators and issuing support of the 30 percent reduction in Europe's own carbon emissions by 2020.
A six-month trial recycling scheme to encourage Metro readers to recycle their newspapers was launched on Monday at six London Underground stations.
The locations for the bins have all been chosen for logistical reasons to ensure recycling can take place easily. The recycling bins are at Watford, West Ruislip, Stanmore, Cockfosters, Hainault and High Barnet. The bins will be in place from 6th October for a period of six months and will be emptied daily by London Underground cleaning contractors, MetroNet and Tube Lines.
By placing specially designed bins with hoops and plastic bags on platforms it is hoped commuters will take advantage of these new facilities instead of leaving the newspaper behind on the train carriage.
Marian Kelly, Environment Manager at London Underground said: "We want to increase the amount of newspapers we recycle and hope that the introduction of the first ever recycling bins on the Tube will help us do that."
A three month trial will see nine recycling bins installed at Waterloo station in an attempt to cut the amount of free newspapers going to landfill. South West Trains and Network Rail announced that they have teamed up to trial a new newspaper recycling service at London Waterloo from today.
The proliferation of free newspapers has led to bins outside the station being crammed full with free papers leading to huge quantities of waste, much of which does not find its way into recycling streams.
Approximately 75,000 issues of the Metro are handed out at South West Trains' stations every morning; this represents around 12 tonnes of paper.
"We are calling on all passengers to dispose of their newspapers at the designated recycling bins," said Andrew Fairbank, South West Trains' head of stations. "An indirect benefit, which is not only to our passengers but also to the whole world, is that less waste goes to landfill, reducing the adverse affects on the environment."
The project will initially run as a three-month trial and will see newspaper recycling bins located on platforms one through to four, and 15 through to 19.
Once the trial is complete, the companies say that they will measure the success and consider extending the scheme on a permanent basis.
Westminster Council has announced that 120 tonnes of free newspapers have been collected in the past six months from the 70 extra recycling bins that were sponsored by Associated Newspapers and News International.
As reported on the Guardian website, this falls short of the councils 400 tonnes per annum target . However, it seems the bins have been a success and one can only hope that this will mean all parties concerned will be considering the introduction of more recycling bins throughout London and the rest of the country. Indeed Westminster went on to say "we are not complacent and we realise there is still a lot of work we can do to improve recycling rates. We are still in positive talks with Associated Newspapers and hope we can boost our recycling rates even further."
During the six-month period the council also collected 465 tonnes of waste paper from its own 153 on-street recycling bins.
The free newspapers publishers are responsible for producing approximately 100 tonnes of free newspaper waste every day so an extra 4 tonnes per day represents a positive outcome to the voluntary agreement set in place last year; but this figure ultimately falls short of the bare minimum number of free papers that we must expect to be recycled on a daily basis.
Switzerland's price watchdog wants distributors of free newspapers and take-away businesses to pay for the costs of littering.
Distributors and publishers of free newspapers in Switzerland are in discussions with the Federal Environment Office to investigate how much they should be contributing to the litter they are creating.
Rudolf Strahm says the principle that the polluter pays should also apply to litter and free newspapers in public places.
But if the talks do not bring a solution, the environment office is to prepare the introduction of a disposal fee on behalf of the government.
The third Project Freesheet Walkabout went ahead very smoothly last week as part of London Sustainability Week; once again proving that there are still a great number of commtitted individuals who want to see an end to free newspaper waste.
Nearly 350kgs of free newspapers were collected in the alloted time period of 2 hours. Each PF volunteer was able to collect on average 140 free newspapers which means the average number of papers being collected has increased from the last Walkabout. Of the nearly 100 tonnes of free newspapers being distributed on a daily basis around London the vast majority are still going straight to landfill.
Papers were collected from the tube trains, overground trains, buses and the street. They were then displayed in Trafalgar Squarer before being taken to Ideal Waste for recycling.
As news of Boris Johnson's early decision to axe the Londoner (ex London Mayor Ken Livingstone's accused free propaganda paper), in favour of 10,000 trees to be planted across London, spreads across the internet, Reuters have also been reporting that a slight majority of newspapers editors think that all newspapers will be free in the future. The report was conducted by Zogby International for the World Editors Forum and Reuters.
The report said that "56 percent of respondents believed that the majority of news, be it via print or online, would be free in the future. That was up from 48 percent who answered yes a year ago."
These observations and the already well documented evidence of free newspaper growth (340% since 2001) should provide more than enough argument to bring free newspaper waste to the top of the waste and recycling agenda's of Government and local councils alike.
Mr Johnson's decision is obviously a very positive move in terms of London's environment, and so we look forward to his pre-election promise to "work with the publishers of these free newspapers to come to a proper arrangement that ensures they take responsibility for the amount of waste they are producing on a daily basis"
The next planned Walkabout from Project Freesheet will be held on Thursday June 12th. As before we will be planning on collecting at least 100 free papers per volunteer.
Please email us via the website if you would like to take part or click here for more details.
The candidates for London's Mayoral elections have been setting out their vision for a more positive response to the current free newspaper crisis.
Gerard Batten, Siân Berry, Alan Craig, Lindsey German, Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone, Matt O'Connor and Brian Paddick have all received this letter from Project Freesheet.
Brian Paddick (Lib Dem)feels that "free newspapers should have to pay all of the costs associated with the rubbish they cause. This may encourage them to deal more responsibly with the waste they create"
Siân Berry (Green Party)responded very firmly by saying "We are committed to ensuring there is 100% recycling of all free newspapers given out at stations and we are committed to providing much better recycling facilities at all rail and tube stations. We are also committed to ensuring the distributors pay the full clean-up costs of their activities. We support on-the-spot fines for littering, more obligations for publishers and all other business to collect and recycle their own waste and penalties for print over-runs" Gerard Batten MEP (UKIP candidate) responded as follows - "the free newspaper owners cannot escape responsibility for the waste problems they create" and he went on to say "I would consider any measure that made the publishers and distributors of free newspapers responsible for the costs of collecting and recycling their own waste products."
More interesting though was his idea to help increase rates of recycling the free papers - "I would also consider imaginative initiatives such as hiring the army of Big Issue sellers in the capital for a week or two to collect the discarded copies, and to put them into lorries for delivery back to the offices of the publishers"
The press office of Alan Craig of the Christian Peoples Alliance, responded as follows - "Alan was struck by the facts you set out in your letter - particularly the failure to recycle the freesheets. Alan would like to invite Project Freesheet to meet him in the Assembly to discuss how your proposals can be implemented at borough level and by business."
Meanwhile Boris Johnson (Conservative) said "I absolutely agree with you on this issue, recycling in London is a problem that needs to be tackled head on and not ignored... Should I be elected Mayor I will work with the publishers of these free newspapers to come to a proper arrangement that ensures they take responsibility for the amount of waste they are producing on a daily basis."
An open letter has been sent to all London's Mayoral candidates for 2008 by Project Freesheet. Sian Berry, Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone, and Brian Paddick have all been asked how they would address the issues raised by the ongoing proliferation of free newspapers in the capital, and, if elected, how they would show Londoners that adequate standards of environmental responsibility were a priority.
The letter reads as follows -
"Among the issues the next major of London will have to tackle is the increasing environmental impact – and substantial clean-up cost – of free newspapers which continue to proliferate in our capital.
Currently, over 1.5 million free newspapers are distributed in London each weekday. No doubt you will have witnessed for yourself that many end up littered on London's streets and transport network.
What you may not be aware of is quite how little of this waste is actually recycled. Transport for London can only cope with recycling around 25% and no London borough yet recycles waste left in municipal bins. As a consequence, the vast majority of this waste ends up in landfill – a situation which will need to change as the EU Landfill Directive caps the proportion of biodegradeable waste which can be diverted to landfill at 50% from July 2009, then 35% from July 2016.
At a time of increasing concern about climate change, when there is a pressing need to reduce our energy consumption and make better use of finite natural resources, freesheets, from production to distribution, are a step in the wrong direction. Consider these simple facts:
Deforestation: London’s consumption of free newspapers amounts to more than 100,000 trees per year
Energy usage: Vast quantities of energy are used in production, distribution and disposal
Cleanup cost: the huge cost and resource drain on authorities is inevitably borne by taxpayers and commuters
Unsustainable behaviour: London seeks to inspire and lead other world cities in persuading its citizens and businesses to adopt more environmentally-sustainable behaviour, yet the wilful and gross wastage involved in the production and distribution of freesheets significantly undermines this message.
Decisive leadership on this issue is essential. We are not calling for a ban on free literature – we recognise the demand and businesses’ right to trade. However, both publisher and consumer must display adequate standards of environmental responsibility. Project Freesheet believes that relatively simple measures would go a long way to remedy the problems outlined:
More recycling bins: if we are aiming to recycle even 50% of free paper waste an extra 4000 bins are needed across the capital
Spot fines penalising those who litter or fail to use recycling bins when provided: this would keep London's streets and transport network cleaner, while communicating environmental imperatives
Ban distributors: publishers must be made more responsible for their own environmental impact. Forcing them to switch from manual distributors to stands where the public can help themselves would ultimately reducing supply to match demand
More obligations on publishers to collect and recycle their own waste: this would reduce the financial burden on City Hall, borough councils and the taxpayer
Penalties for continual print overruns: the current circulation war sees many papers jettisoned each day when they cannot be handed out, creating unacceptable and unnecessary waste.
As a mayoral candidate, we are interested in how you would address these issues if elected. We very much look forward to hearing from you."
Camden seeks to limit free literature distribution
The number of free newspapers being handed out outside Tube stations is set to be limited by Camden Council. In a new report, which will go to the council next month, it is being recommended that the number of newspapers handed out in Camden should be controlled more strictly to protect the borough's streets and save cash.
Last year Westminster Council sought to bring in similar controls, but instead it reached an agreement with Associated Newspapers and News International that they would buy extra recycling banks for the borough as a trial. Camden Council is considering trialling these recycling banks but it is still being proposed that controls are brought in anyway.
The plan is to designate areas such as Kings Cross and St Pancras, Camden Town, Euston Station and the Holborn gateway as control areas for the distribution of free literature in line with Defra guidance, under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.
Adrian Oliver, leader of Camden's Green Party, said: "I certainly share concerns about the waste of resources and the levels of litter caused by the London Lite and the London Paper.
"I would also be interested to know exactly how much recycling these papers are doing. How many of these papers are actually getting recycled and how many end up as litter?"
Nearly 70 volunteers travelled from as far as Scotland, Liverpool and Brighton to take part in the second Project Freesheet walkabout.
Most areas of London were covered with groups collecting in shifts of two hours from 3pm till 8pm. The groups that started after 6pm all reported that they were overwhelmed by the availability of discarded free newspapers.
London's TV and radio stations also took a great interest in the day's activities with live interviews and lots of coverage. The final count was just under 800 kg of free papers gathered in just 2 hours. This represents over 100 free papers per volunteer with the final count approaching 8000 free papers.
Some very hard physical work was put in by all who took part with ages ranging from 15 to 75. Project Freesheet would like to thank all the volunteers, team leaders and driver (thank you Jay!) who took part. We'll be publishing some more photos and video over the next few weeks; all of which document what an enormous task was taken on by the PF volunteers.
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