Earlier this year, I noticed a number of the following posters appearing on Northern Rail trains. I am strongly in favour of recycling, but they seem to have the wrong end of the stick.
Recycling is just as much about reuse as it is about reprocessing materials and making something new. Leaving newspapers on the train (especially copies of Metro) is a perfect example of recycling in action. If everybody took their own copy of the Metro home to recycle, then they’d need to print twice as many.
Of course, at the end of the day, all the day’s newspapers should be recycled. However, I have never seen a recycling point (for newspapers, cans, bottles, or anything for that matter) on board a Northern Rail train, or at a Northern Rail station in West Yorkshire.
To that end, I have written Northern Rail the following letter:
Dear Northern Rail,
I am writing regarding the recycling poster that has appeared recently on your trains around West Yorkshire. It states:
“Please recycle your newspaper. Leaving it behind is littering.”
As a keen supporter of recycling, I am glad to see that you are taking the issue seriously.
The poster encourages people to recycle newspapers that they have been reading on the train, many of which will be the free papers provided in your stations.
Could you let me know what facilities are available for recycling on board your trains and at your stations?
Also, do your cleaners recycle items (eg. newspapers, cans, bottles) found on board trains when cleaning them?
I would challenge your assertion that leaving a newspaper on the train is littering. I almost never pick up a copy of Metro from the piles available at your stations, but regularly pick one up that has been left on the train. If everybody took home their own copy of the Metro, then you’d have to print twice as many, which isn’t very green.
My suggestion for addressing this issue would be that you provide areas in each train carriage, and at each station, where people can leave their newspapers. This chould be a shelf clearly marked “Leave your newspaper here”. It should not be a bin, the idea being that other people could pick up a newspaper from the shelf to read, then replace it when they’ve finished. At the end of the day, your cleaners could clear the shelf straight into a paper recycling bin. This would encourage both reuse and recycling of the newspapers, which is surely better all round.
I look forward to hearing what you think.
Tags: environment, Northern Rail, recycling, trains, transport
12 February 2011 at 22:05 |
[...] reminded me about my previous post about their last poster on this theme, which I disagree with. They claim that leaving newspapers on [...]