London's Westminster Council says Associated Newspapers Ltd. and News Corp. are creating “a mountain” of garbage on the city's West End, and have threatened to penalize the publishers if they don't do something to help clean up the mess.

Westminster officials said 20 tons of discarded newspapers have been collected each week since Associated's London Lite and News Corp.'s rival theLondonpaper were both launched last year. Vendors hand out the newspapers every afternoon during the weekday.

The council said it costs 111,000 pounds ($224,000) to get rid of the newspaper waste each year, and voted this week to place distribution limits on both papers if publishers do not agree to a clean-up plan within a month.