Flyers through the letterbox

rosboy

Is anyone else sick of getting 5 billion flyers through their letter box every week? These are unsolicited, and surely there has to be a law against it. In the past three days, the following have fallen through my letter box:

• 3 free local newspapers through the letter box (OK, I like these, but surely I could just pick one up in the local shop if I wanted one) totalling 184 pages (tabloid format sheets),
• 3-4 fliers for local hardware shops/restaurant/take away/beauticians.
• And a 146 page glossy magazine from Failte Ireland!
• And thats not to mention the 3-4 bags that fall through my letterbox each months asking for donations of clothes for charity X, Y or Z

With the exception of the newspapers, all the above go directly into the bin.

I'm pretty sure there is a law out there that says that companies can't cold call people's phones to offer products/service. It shouldn't be any different for unsolicited mail!

Look at the waste caused by this, and its impact to the environment. As a society we need to be cutting back on this kind of unnecessary waste.

I understand that business/charities need to reach out to people, but this isn't the way.

If charities want to ask people to donate clothes, why not agree with the major shopping chains (Dunnes, Tesco, Superquinn, Super Value, Spar) that there will a rack in each shop where each charity can put their bag & flyer. Consumers will then know that if they want to donate clothes, they can go to the shop and pick up the bag for the charity they want.

Right, thats my rant over. Does anyone know of any laws regulating this?

Not sure if this is the right forum for this. Mods please move if necessary.

homer911

I put a discreet little sign on the letter box: "No Free Newspapers or Flyers please" - seems to have fixed the problem!

AngryHippie

surplus cluster mines and a post van detector, so the real post gets there.:o

Kablammo failte Ireland, and local take away.

Poochie05

AngryHippie wrote: »

surplus cluster mines and a post van detector, so the real post gets there.:o

My postie actually delivers all the junk mail described above! I think you can stop junk mail that is addressed to you but not sure about the unaddressed stuff. A friend of mine had a sign saying 'No unsolicited mail' which worked for a while but there's nothing you can really do if they choose to ignore the sign.

Macha

Poochie05 wrote: »

My postie actually delivers all the junk mail described above! I think you can stop junk mail that is addressed to you but not sure about the unaddressed stuff. A friend of mine had a sign saying 'No unsolicited mail' which worked for a while but there's nothing you can really do if they choose to ignore the sign.

Well...there is. If I've had a particularly bad day, I ring the number on the flyer or email and tell them that because they chose to ignore my simple request, I am now going to tell everyone I know not to use their service. They get apologetic pretty quickly.

Then again, this is one of my pet hates. Sometimes when I'm bringin down my recycling I feel like its all flyers! Especially during election campaigns.

DublinWriter

taconnol wrote: »

Well...there is. If I've had a particularly bad day, I ring the number on the flyer or email and tell them that because they chose to ignore my simple request, I am now going to tell everyone I know not to use their service. They get apologetic pretty quickly.

Well, bang goes their share price.

We need a national campaign of standardised stickers and penalties for non-compliant companies. In Belgium they have standard 'Pas de Pub' notices on letterboxes.

I wouldn't rely on Gormless of the Greens to introduce anything like this as it doesn't involve either taxing or banning something.