Anti-freesheet campaigners protest to Downing Street

Back in June, the group created a giant pile of newspapers in Trafalgar Square to raise awareness about the impact freesheets have on the environment and to encourage people to recycle their papers.

Since then, London Lite publisher Associated Newspapers and thelondonpaper publisher News International, have struck a deal with Westminster, in which they agreed to help the council with a recycling plan.

In August, the two companies bought around 40 recycling bins for the borough and agreed to recycle the contents and carry out regular litter collections.

The litter collections are in addition to the council's existing street sweeping, which aimed to reduce the paper waste in the zones of Charing Cross and Embankment; Leicester Square and Charing Cross Road; Oxford Circus; and Victoria station.

However, since that deal was made Project Freesheet has conducted an assessment in central London to measure how many of the papers are actually being recycled.

The group found that very few papers remained in the area from which they had been distributed and therefore adding more recycling bins may not provide any benefit.

It also found very few consumers were actually recycling their papers and were instead discarding them in litter bins or on the street. It will be assessing the area again on October 12.

A spokesperson from Associated Newspapers said: "London Lite circulates 400,000 copies a day. Our carefully targeted distribution ensures that we hit an urbanite audience and we feel that 400,000 copies is a responsible number based on the demand for an afternoon paper.

"London Lite is committed to acting in an environmentally responsible manner and works closely with London councils to ensure that discarded copies are recycled. London Lite is open to working with Project Freesheet to address their concerns."

Thelondonpaper, which publishes around 500,000 papers daily was not available for comment at the time of publication.