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Speaking to Brand Republic, Steve Auckland, managing director of Metro and London Lite, said: "I think the whole issue of the freesheet waste has been brought upon by the extra hundred thousand copies of thelondonpaper that News International began printing at the end of last year.

"[News International] is oversupplying the market and creating extra waste."

The London Lite distributes around 400,000 copies each day, but thelondonpaper distributes around 500,000.

Later this evening, the Westminster Council is backing a protest by campaign group Project Freesheet, which will be creating a giant pile of newspapers in Trafalgar Square to highlight the enormous amount of waste created by London's freesheets.

The group has launched the campaign to raise awareness about the impact freesheets have on the environment and to encourage people to recycle their papers.

The council's cleansing teams will be on standby at Trafalgar Square where Project Freesheet's volunteers will gather between 6pm to7pm to create the giant pile of newspapers.

Around 1,000 tonnes of free newspapers are reportedly littering Westminster's streets and bins each year, accounting for up to a quarter of all street waste in the West End.

Councillor Alan Bradley, Westminster City Council's cabinet member for street environment, said: "This campaign is highlighting the very issues we are facing. Westminster is at the sharp end due to the proliferation of free newspapers, and areas of the city which have won awards for their cleanliness are being blighted by a sea of discarded newspapers.

"We're not against free newspapers per se, but what we are against is their negative impact on the environment."

The council is still in negotiations with Associated Newspapers and News International to strike a deal for contribution to its £500,000 recycling plan.

Auckland said Associated Newspapers is currently waiting for Westminster to review a proposal it put forward for the recycling plan, which had received positive feedback.

Ian Clark, general manager of thelondonpaper, defended his paper's positioning on recycling. He said: "All our distributors are supplied with recycling bags to pick up any papers left in the areas around their pitches. And we regularly run adverts in thelondonpaper encouraging readers to be responsible when discarding their paper."

Justin Canning, the Project Freesheet organiser, said: "There appears to be a lot of hypocrisy by these newspapers which tout their own green agenda in their news pages, but do not follow that through with actions when it comes to the problems they're creating.

"We want readers to be aware of their impact and responsibilities towards the environment, but the producers also have a responsibility, and it's down to their readers to force these publishers to make sure their waste is recycled."

In April, Westminster council threatened to "severely curtail" distribution of thelondonpaper and London Lite in the borough if the freesheets' publishers did not significantly contribute to its recycling plan, designed to deal with the extra waste.

The council increased the number of newspaper recycling bins to 131 following the launch of the free evening newspapers last August, but it said it needs to introduce an extra 300 bins and extra lorries, with crews to regularly empty them, which would cost around £500,000.