British free papers agree to recycle themselves

A British municipal government has forced distributors of two free newspapers to pay for and service recycling bins for their products.

The deal comes after [Westminster] council threatened earlier this year to ban the two London free newspapers, Associated's London Lite and News International rival thelondonpaper, if they did not contribute to the cost of clearing up discarded papers each night, said a story in the UK Press Gazette.

The council - which oversees a large part of Central London, including Victoria and Charing Cross mainline rail stations - said in April that the two free papers, since they launched last August, had created an extra 1,000 tonnes of waste.

Under today's agreement, Associated will pay for 32 London Lite-branded bins around Victoria station and Leicester Square and thelondonpaper will fund another 32 bins around Charing Cross and Oxford Circus.

Interestingly, Metro, another free paper familiar to Canadian cities and whose remnants drift around the ankles of Toronto commuters, refused to make a similar deal. There is no word on whether a ban is forthcoming.