Plastic bottles, cans and newspapers can now be recycled in the special purpose bins at Euston Station
by Michael Smith
Commuters at one of London's busiest train and tube stations no longer have an excuse not to recycle their rubbish as they make their way to and from the rat race every day.
Twelve dual recycling and litter bins have been installed at Euston Station to allow travellers to recycle their papers, plastic bottles and cans.
The London Borough of Camden Council has installed the bins in the station for a six-month trial which, if successful, could result in the scheme being rolled out across the borough.
The chiefs of Camden Council said that they thousands of people who pass through the busy transport hub every day often put their recyclables into ordinary litter bins rather than recycling, and extra litter is created by companies giving out flyers and newspapers.
And often that litter, e.g. the flyers and free newspapers, do not just end up in a bin; people often simply drop them on the ground.
Tom McMahon, the council's head of street environment, said that Camden is one of the capital's cleanest boroughs and that they want to keep it that way.
It is therefore hoped that commuters using Euston Station are going to set an example to the rest of London by recycling what they can when using this station and help the Borough make this new trial a success.
The council said the dual containers being used in the trial will make it easier for people to recycle and cut down on clutter in the station.
The scheme follows the council's recent adoption of new powers to prevent litter.
Under the controls, anyone who wants to hand out flyers, leaflets and free newspapers in certain areas, including Euston Station, Kings Cross and St Pancras, and Camden Town, have to apply to the council for a permit.
Camden Council has been working with the publisher of both “thelondonpaper” and the “London Lite” to cut down the litter caused by discarded free newspapers. A similar agreement is already in existence between the newspapers and Westminster City Council.
Camden Council's new bins follow the launch of Government's “Recycle on the Go” pilot scheme in June.
Personally, I must say that those free newspapers, while I avail myself of them when they are available on a train when I travel into London or such, are really a menace, or better the readers, in that they are left all over the station concourses and such. Though, as said, I avail myself of them when one happens to be lying about on the train seat or such, it would be better if they would not be distributed at all.
Who really, in today's age and time, needs to buy, or receive free, newspapers when all the news of all the papers, generally, is available online and that even via RSS feeds. I have a number of those coming to my “homepage” and if anything is of interest then I convert that into a PDF, store it and read it as my leisure. No paper to throw away later – unless I print it out for some reason – and no trees being used in the production.
I do not, however, think that electronic newspapers, as currently, proposed, ever will take off. Reading on screen on a train is probably not the best thing. I also rather read a book or do some writing when travelling on a train and with the new rolling stock now it is actually possible to write on an overground train. Unfortunately the same cannot, as yet, be said for the tube's rolling stock.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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Commuters at Euston Station can now recycle as they go
