Transport for London - How to use campaigns to reduce waste on the underground.

I travelled to London this week and like most commuters I found the free newspapers a break from the dreary faces of unhappy passengers. Who wouldn't? They're packed with gossip, news and some even stapled so they don't fall apart.

The top free London papers are TheLondonPaper and LondonLite. They have both only been around since August 2006 but have cause a great uproar with environmentalists all aross London. In a recent NRS survey it estimated that 745,000 people read London Lite and 713,000 red thelondonpaper EACH DAY.

More than 16 tonnes of rubbish is collected from the Underground every day. After the release of these free papers, Tube Lines said the amount of paper waste being collected on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines had risen from 3.5 tonnes to almost five tonnes a day.

Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the London Assembly called on the newspaper publishers to do more. She said: "Either people have got to be responsible by bringing them out and putting them into recycling bins or the newspaper company itself really ought to make sure there are people picking up those newspapers."

The answer produced by Space Hijackers is:"Recycling is not the answer, producing less rubbish in the first place is" Their blog provides a great answer to the problem:

http://www.spacehijackers.co.uk/html/projects/freepaper/paperwar.html

Just because its free doesn't mean its right... they collected all of the LONDON LITE newspapers and branded them LONDON LITTER. They produced the advert below and put the adverts into the papers before handing them to London consumers.

The campaign to the left was previously run in January 2009 with London Lite. These campaigns encourage their passengers to recycle the free newspapers they get at tube stations.

TFL argue that we should take the papers with us but if we remove them, then theres no for other commuters to read and they will pick up some more, market research will show a better interest in papers and EVEN more will be produced. The cycle is endless. So how can the TFL reduce waste? Obviously these campaigns are only a short term solution and INFACT offer no solution to the problem! 1.6 million newspapers are given out in London every day, so how can we reduce waste and increase recycling?

The tfl recycling campaign advertises: “Help us to recycle by taking yours with you”. Personally I thought that the TFL would recycle all of the papers left on the tube but alas! They do not. The papers represent the vast majority of waste left by passengers.

I think the Newspapers themselves have begun to understand the problems with their papers and this week, in unity with Transport For London release this advert in their publication. They have begun to place recycling bins to help consumers to reduce their waste. You have to give them credit, if you have a problem of litter the LAST thing you would think of is to put bins in the underground, and it only took them 3 years to think of it.