ROYAL WEDDING FAILS TO BOOST NEWSPAPER’S SALES
That was the rather surprising headline one day last week. On the day after the wedding I certainly could not get hold of a Times at any of the town centre outlets, nor any other paper either except the Guardian.
I should have taken note of the punctilious placement of the apostrophe in the headline.
The item was about the latest published results for the Daily Mail & General Trust which were disappointing in part because ‘advertising at the main newspapers was down 5 per cent in April & May, despite the Easter holiday period & the royal wedding.’ Looks like all those exhaustive, voluminous supplements failed to earn their keep.
None of this was helped by steep rises in the cost of newsprint which must compete in the market for recycled paper against Chinese demand for packaging.
And speaking of recycling, Shanks recently announced a £150 million three-year investment in plants which can sort waste into different types of recyclables & anaerobic digestion facilities for food waste – which at first sight sounded as though it might relieve us of a fearful chore.
But no. ‘A revolution in the domestic kitchen is needed to transform the country … separate food waste bins would allow us to more efficiently turn that into green energy & prevent a lot of contamination of recyclable goods.’
Well we already have separate composting bins, which take garden waste & cardboard along with food, but it is not easy to be sure that we are using them ‘properly.’
They do say we can wrap food in ‘a piece’ of newspaper, to help minimise seepage & smell while it sits waiting two weeks for the next collection. But does too much newspaper defeat the whole object of the exercise, & if so, how much is too much?
And don’t get me started on cardboard. I veer between ‘If it looks like cardboard & is used like cardboard it goes in the compost bin’ to ‘If it’s got some sort of waxy or plastic coating, better send it to landfill.’
And don’t get me started on plastic either – well I’ve already grumbled about that.
What we really, really want is to have it all just carried away & sorted in a magic plant.
