Please let this spread nationwide and be generalized to more forms of advertising. It's just littering at this point.
I know somebody pays for them, but people pay for their fast food wrappers, too, and they aren't allowed to leave them on other people's porches. I paid for the beer in my fridge, but I'm not going to leave a bag of empties hanging from my neighbor's doorknob.
I really don't know how the legal exception works, how the law distinguishes one act of spewing worthless crap into the environment from another, but it should be possible to cut down on the constant flyers under wiper blades, takeout menus on doorknobs, etc., and still let people put up posters about lost pets, local missing persons, and neighborhood garage sales.
I couldn't agree more. I can't keep up with all of the advertising local shops and eateries and services leave on my door (which inevitably end up blown all over my yard and in the bushes and the window wells) and it makes huge mess - especially if it rains before I get to them. The last thing I need on top of that is the damn phone book (and, of course, you usually have multiple phone books). The first thing I do when I get those on my door step is close the door behind me and walk them to the trash. I have not used a phone book in a decade, but have thrown away a minimum of thirty.
One of the big problems with the [related] abuse of the mail system is that it is effectively a denial of service attack against legitimate messages. Nearly everything that comes into my mail slot gets binned.
I figure: if somebody cares enough about sending me a slip of paper, they will either send it Fed Ex, or they will email it to me; nobody uses the postal system for anything other than trash.
In fact, I wonder what the legality of literally mailing garbage is. USPS flat-rate boxes are something like $5, and I could fit a lot of apple cores, orange peels, and coffee grounds into one of those things. In fact, my sister is soon due to have a kid. I'd pay to have her mail the dirty diapers to whoever keeps sending me paper spam.
That this is an accepted abuse of the postal system is absurd.
It seems to indicate that unless it's for a medical reason (and labelled accordingly?) you're not allowed to send human or animal feces, so the diaper idea is out.
Other garbage would depend on the risk of the actual garbage. Empty containers and so on is likely to be fine. Rotting organic material could be iffy.
I know somebody pays for them, but people pay for their fast food wrappers, too, and they aren't allowed to leave them on other people's porches. I paid for the beer in my fridge, but I'm not going to leave a bag of empties hanging from my neighbor's doorknob.
I really don't know how the legal exception works, how the law distinguishes one act of spewing worthless crap into the environment from another, but it should be possible to cut down on the constant flyers under wiper blades, takeout menus on doorknobs, etc., and still let people put up posters about lost pets, local missing persons, and neighborhood garage sales.