The group Project Freesheet is lobbying the British government to ban the distribution of freesheets the London Paper and London Lite.

The group has posted its petition on the 10 Downing Street e-petitions Web site, asking for an end to freesheet distrubution, due to the problem of discarded newspapers on London's streets.

In addition to the e-petition, the group has posted an video online to debating site Friction TV, and recently asked London's citizens to post pictures of discarded freesheets and collected discarded free papers for a day.

Justin Canning, founder of the group, is now also demanding the government ban wholesale distribution of the papers, the Guardian reported. He says nearly 1 million freesheets are left on London's streets each weekday.

“London Lite and the London Paper use over 1,000 distributors between them to hand out close to 1m free newspapers every day. The councils of London would need a whopping 4,000 extra recycling bins to capture just half of these free newspapers that are given away,” he said. “In my opinion it is the only way to gain some control over the number of free newspapers that are hitting the streets of London every day.”

Associated Newspapers publishes London Lite, and News International publishes the London Paper. Both agreed in August to buy and manage 32 recycling bins in London's West End, and both will also regularly collect litter. Neither were available to comment, the Guardian reported Friday.

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