A protest is to be held against the environmental impact of free newspaper production.

Project Freesheet, launched by London-based photographer Justin Canning, wants to put pressure on publishers to promote recycling - and pay for the waste they create.

He claims that every day 1,500,000 freesheet papers are printed in London - equal to some 400 trees a day, and worldwide that figure rises to 40m papers a day - or 9,000 trees.

In London, Westminster Council has said that over the next two years it will require an extra £500,000 just to deal with freesheet papers.

As part of London Sustainability Week 2007 Project Freesheet will be staging an event on the tubes beneath London.

Volunteers will go around in groups collecting discarded free newspapers which will be gathered together for a photo call at the end of the day.

A Project Freesheet spokesman said: "We'll be gathering 100 or so volunteers to spend the day on the tube network collecting freesheet newspapers for recycling whilst engaging the public in conversation about the critical issues of impact on the environment.

"We think this will provide a great opportunity for people to 'wake-up' from their commute to take notice of the issues they are passing by on a daily basis.

"On the day we'll arrange for a photo call to show how many papers we've gathered up."

The volunteers will also be texting the freesheet publishers with the project's environmental message.

The spokesman added: “The current freesheet war in London is having a considerable impact on our environment.

"Whilst the free newspaper publishers continue to print huge quantities of free newspapers (which may or may not be handed out) the streets of London are overflowing with the debris of a product abandoned to landfill."

The event will begin at Liverpool St tube station (Bishopsgate side, street level) on Wednesday, June 13 at 10am.