You know that quickpoll functionality on the 10 Downing Street website? petitions.pm.gov.uk/

Let's start a petition!

Here's my suggestion.

Require newsagents to put a recycling bin in the shop beside the newspaper stand, particularly on Saturdays and Sundays. I regularly get into trouble in Smiths for standing there and taking out all the supplements and adverts I am not going to read. Since I am not going to read them I don't see the point of taking them home.

Taking this to it's logical conclusion, if the newspaper proprietors were given feedback as to the most unpopular supplements, they could stop producing them and thus save the planet!

...but what do I know?

Good idea? Bad idea? Any other suggestions?

It strikes me that if we do this as a concerted effort we could get it into the "top five most popular" list - once there, if it is good enough, it will take on a life of it's own, and...

Regards,

Bill

It's a good idea Bill. I've left packaging in shops. I no longer put my fresh fruit and veg in the plastic bags that shops provide. I just put them loose on the counter. Group them nicely for the check out person and it's no big deal. Like you say the message will get across.

Like not using carrier bags; if shops notice that they are not having to order so many plastic bags per week, then eventually if the number of unused bags increase - as the public takes along a renewable alternative - the shops will stop purchasing them, and the bag manufacturers will either have to change their mode of production or face going out of business. A positive outcome from your action.

Your proposal would stop so many trees getting chopped. It's all positive my friend. Even if the corporations find other means by which to sabotage the environment, at least you'll have done the right thing.

Good idea in principle Bill, but the newsagent is just a middleman. Why not petition the government to make the newspaper publishers directly responsible for the recycling of the unwanted supplements? They've done it with other sectors of industry. That'd make them think twice about over-producing crap. Personally I don't understand why they don't just sell supplements separately. I expect it's got a lot to do with advertising revenue...

I used to work in a book shop that sold papers. The supplements generally came separately from the papers so someone had to spend 30 minutes compiling the full set of supplements. What a waste of time and effort when half of them aren't even going to get read. And at the end of the day we always had loads left over, and the ones the staff didn't take home got binned. Criminally bad ordering on the part of my employers. Let's name and shame.....Blackwells! They pay their staff peanuts too....but that's a whole different rant

Grand Idea, but an awful lot of work. I got tired of my house looking like a hamster cage on Sunday mornings with the paper spread every where so we stopped getting the sunday paper. Most of the news is scary and depressing...not what I need on my Sunday morning anyway.

Then I found that with the daily paper I was getting fed up with the clutter, because Mondays edition would stick around till thursday because there were articles I still wanted to read but hadn't had time to. And besides most of it was scary and depressing. So we canceled that as well. Now we are useing fewer trees, read the news on the internet...but not to often. It's no fun being scared and depressed.

Oh and one good use for the suplements (we still get those in the mail). We stick those in the corners of the rooms for our ferrets to poop on when we are letting them run free. MAkes clean up a snap. Probably work with most pets and small children.