Free Daily Newspaper - Voluntary Schemes

Voluntary Schemes

With the continued success of the free newspaper model, newspaper publishers are coming under increasing pressure from local councils and public transport companies to contribute more to the clean up costs. In London, South West Trains have partnered with Network Rail to provide nine recycling bins which have been installed at Waterloo station. 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. Approximately 75,000 issues of the Metro are handed out at South West Trains' stations every morning; this represents around 12 tonnes of paper. Once the trial is complete, the companies say that they will measure the success and consider extending the scheme on a permanent basis.

London Underground have partnered with London's Metro free newspaper to place bins at Watford, West Ruislip, Stanmore, Cockfosters, Hainault and High Barnet tube stations. The bins will be in place from 6 October for a period of six months and will be emptied daily by London Underground cleaning contractors, MetroNet and Tube Lines.

Westminster Council recently announced that 120 tonnes of free newspapers were collected in six months from the 70 extra recycling bins that were sponsored by Associated Newspapers and News International. This figure falls short of the councils 400 tonnes per annum target. 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.