Under the new deal, Associated Newspapers, which publishes the London Lite, and NI Free Newspapers, which publishes thelondonpaper, have paid for 70 recycling bins which they will also be responsible for maintaining.
The containers will be placed at 56 sites across the West End and are in addition to the 146 newspaper recycling bins supplied and maintained by Westminster council.
Associated Newspapers, which hands out 400,000 Londonlite' every day, will take responsibility for servicing bins and clearing up discarded papers near its distribution points in the Leicester Square and Victoria station areas.
NI Free Newspapers, a subsidiary of publishing company News International which distributes 500,000 thelondonpaper's every day, will take the same responsibility in the Oxford Circus and Charing Cross station areas.
Westminster council's cabinet member for street environment, Cllr Alan Bradley, said: “As well as the importance of helping the environment through recycling, we also want to ensure that Westminster retains it enviable status as one of the cleanest places in the country.
“I'm delighted that our unique agreement means that the million daily visitors into Westminster now have even more opportunities to recycle their newspapers.”
Figures
There are 56 170-litre bins – made by plastics recycler and product manufacturer LINPAC – in place at the moment, with the others designated for what are currently construction sites. The containers presently on the streets have the capacity to collect 1.5 tonnes of material each day from the containers presently on the streets.
When all 70 bins are in place, around 400 tonnes a year are expected to be recycled – around 38% of all waste newspaper in Westminster's streets.
The council estimates that around 24% of street waste in the West End is newspapers and recycling them will help improve its present recycling rate of 20.6%
Cllr Bradley said: “When the free newspapers came into existence, we were picking up 20 tonnes a week, which had been put on the pavement or into general bins, were they were becoming contaminated. This was depressing our recycling percentage.”
Ban
He added: “There are a lot of visitors and tourists and the newspapers employ very aggressive distributors who thrust them into people's hands and when they realise what it is, they throw it away. The situation was so bad we were prepared to use powers given to us under new legislation.”
Under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, councils can designate areas where people handing out free literature have to apply for permission to do so – allowing councils to apply their own restrictions which could result in a ban on distribution of such products.
The two free evening newspaper publishers say they have been motivated to make improvements for environmental reasons as well as to prevent the council banning their newspapers.
Both companies have staff picking up litter around distribution points and London Lite circulation director John Leitch said: “We see the recycling initiative as an extension of our litter picking operation which has run since the launch.”
The londonpaper's managing director Ian Clark added: “We monitor our own situation and we are keen to do what we can to alleviate the problem of waste newspapers. We understand it's an issue we need to address and continue addressing. We are doing all we can to encourage readers to use bins and take papers home.”
The two companies will empty the new recycling bins and put the material into their own vehicles before transporting them to their print warehouses. Hygiene products and packaging firm SCA Recycling collects thisislondon papers from NI Free Newspapers depot in Enfield. Associated Newspapers depot is in Rotherhithe.
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