This year Local Newspaper Week is going green.

Across the country more and more people are opting to live a greener lifestyle, and in every community, people of all ages are becoming involved in activities centred on the environment - neighbourhood clean-ups, tree planting, litter picking, growing your own food.

For many people, local newspapers provide an invaluable service in helping them to find out about such initiatives, and how to become part of them.

As well as raising awareness about green activities, local newspapers also perform a vital function in educating people as to why such initiatives are needed. Global warming may be a world-wide problem, but people in Bradford and district need to know how it could affect them at a local level.

That is not the only contribution local newspapers make towards encouraging a more eco-friendly existence.

Newspaper bosses across the UK have smashed recycling targets as the industry becomes more eco-friendly.

By trebling the amount of recycled paper used to make standard newsprint in less than 20 years, UK publishers have ensured that the industry is greener than ever before.

Newsprint requires a certain level of virgin' paper, that has not been used before, and cannot be made solely from recycled material.

But today, more than 80 per cent of the paper used to make standard newsprint has been recycled at least once, in stark contrast with the 28 per cent in 1991, the year an agreement was reached to make the industry greener (the aim was to achieve 40 per cent recycled content by the year 2000, but the target was reached four years ahead of schedule).

Your Telegraph & Argus here in Bradford is playing a full part as newspapers do their bit for the environment.

Newsquest (Bradford) Ltd group production manager Geoff Lowe stresses the importance of environmental considerations being applied in the workplace: "It is future generations we are thinking about. We are just doing our bit like everybody else should be doing in their respective industries, to create a greener product.

"In some cases we are obliged to comply with legislation, such as that laid down for emissions into the atmosphere. For us it is not a question of being on the lookout - it is about trying to get ahead of the game before legislation is introduced."

Each department in each of the Newsquest (Bradford) buildings has its own newspaper bin for waste. Photocopying paper is collected for recycling by the same company that takes the newspaper. Sensitive waste is shredded and taken to various destinations for recycling.

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