Please sign the petition and forward it to your freinds who might be interested in supporting recycling of free newspapers:

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/recycling-free-newspapers.html

Progress report:
Based on student reports and own professional insight,
Menno van Maanen, the Head of Distribution of Metro,
developed an idea that combines both profit and
sustainability. The idea concerns a re-used newspaper bins
operated by OV-chips and/or mobile phones placed on
railroad stations. The precedent already exists in Holland,
as customers can get credit points for, for example,
disposing of recyclable bottles at supermarkets. The credit
is directly transferred to the customer’s OV-chip or
directly to their phone (in co-operation with Rabobank) at
the check-out counters and could be used directly by
getting discount on groceries or donating credit to
charities.

The readers will place their used newspapers in the bin,
getting immediately credited to their OV-chip or phone.
This credit could be used for purchases or savings at all
participating companies, such as McDonalds (which is
already Metro’s partner), or coffee kiosks, or even NS
tickets at the station. Once deposited into the bin, the
newspapers will be pressed and folded (the way it is done
in Hong Kong) and ready to be taken out again looking
almost new. Other newspapers (De Pers, Spits! And Dag) can
also participate in the scheme. They could be deposited and
taken out of separate slots.

At the end of the day, newspapers from the bins could be
recycled, saving the (huge) costs of cleaning the stations,
trains and mixed garbage. The necessity to supply fresh
newspapers to the train stations couple of times a day (and
thus saving transportation and distribution costs) will be
reduced. The amount of printed paper per day will also be
greatly reduced. The readership of the newspapers could be
increased and the costs of production, transportation,
distribution and recycling could be cut drastically. Metro,
by placing its logo on the bins, will also profit from
supporting its image as an environmentally friendly
newspaper and perhaps be able to attract greater government
and EU subsidies for its scheme in other countries where it
operates.

The reasoning behind this idea is based on commercial and
social research among Dutch consumers. Research shows that
Dutch customers are environmentally aware but will not
actually do much about it if there isn’t a (small
financial) incentive for them for doing so. Saving credit
from Air Miles and similar schemes is popular in Holland,
as is the use of gadgets such as mobile technology.
Environmental awareness plus (small) profit, plus the use
of gadgets could lead to the winning formula, but the idea
still needs to be tested.

There are a number of Dutch as well as EU sponsors who
could potentially be interested in financing the
development and testing of such bins. If the test is
successful (on one station, for example), it could be
applied to all stations in Holland and indeed in the whole
of Europe. For now, it all looks good on laptop (beautiful
orange bins fotoshoped against the background of Central
Station, Amsterdam) and we still need to see whether the
idea is viable. If so, this would be a good example of how
both profit and responsibility could be combined.