Is it littering to leave annoying fliers left on your car on the ground?

Yes, it’s littering.

Yes it is still littering. I just put them in my car and throw them away at home. I agree it is annoying to come out of the store and find something on my windshield. I usually don’t even notice it til I’ve already sat down in my car and have to get back out to get it.

Geesh. Just put it in your car and throw it away later. You are making way to much out of this.

Yes, it’s littering and irresponsible. You can place the unwanted papers in your car until you reach a trash can, or just throw them away right away if one is near.

Sure, it’s an inconvenience put on you by the person who placed it, but they didn’t offend anyone. By throwing it on the ground, you offend many people. The larger offender, then, would be you.

Yes. It’s littering. Just because someone else is an asshole doesn’t give you the right to be as well.

I think it’s littering that it’s left on my car.

Yes, it’s littering. Put it on someone else’s car.

It’s littering if you don’t properly dispose of it and IMO it’s littering if they leave it on one’s car and that person doesn’t want it.

I think whoever is trying to benefit from that flyer distribution should be fined for littering if the recipient doesn’t want the flyer and reports them.

Not to add too much fuel to this fire, but what if you leave it on your car and it blows away as you are driving?

@psychocandy Alright, I’m sorry. Can you tell me exactly where you park your car so every Monday morning I could drop off a few of my new business fliers on it’s windshield?

@erichw1504 I thought about that, but then I’d be just as much as an ass as the person who left the flier on mine. I need a way to get even with these folks without taking out my frustration on others who are just trying to live.

@squirbel How is it irresponsible? How is it my responsibility to tend to the trash of someone’s lousy business promotions? They should compensate me for my janitorial services if I’m expected to properly dispose of their junk.

How would you like if I came to your home and stuck a row of 50 business fliers into your lawn while you are at work and told you it was your responsibility to clean up after my non-offensive business promotion? A little extreme, but I’m trying to articulate my point here.

I get the whole, we have a larger responsibility to our planet to be green-friendly and to never liter, regardless, but these D-bags are just making all of our jobs a lot harder, if not disobeying that responsibility to begin with.

@Brian1946 Thank you!

@sleepdoc It’s still your responsibility. Unless you didn’t notice it and left it there by mistake.

@erichw1504…. Interesting thought, but I think you have to be careful there. Granted you would have to be total jerk to do this, but let’s say you left the trash from your car on the person parked next to you in the parking lot. Does it then become their responsibility to discard of it? Personally I like to try to find the person placing the unwanted ads on cars and either notify the store they are doing it (most times it is illegal to do in parking lots) or return their ad to them.

Yes, it’s littering, to add to the chorus.

Consider this: if the flyer was on your door, and you dropped it in the hall, it’s the same thing. You didn’t ask for it, so why should you include it in your trash? Or, when you get junk mail, why don’t you just drop it on the ground?

Since it’s in the hall, someone comes out, doesn’t see it, and slips and cracks they’re head on the floor. If it can be traced back to you having thrown it in the hall, you’ll be legally liable for damages to the person, in many cases. Regardless of the fact that it could have fallen out of your door, it didn’t – you made the conscious choice to throw it where you did, and someone was injured because of it.

I’m not saying that throwing litter anywhere makes you a killer, of course. ;-) However, wherever you throw it, you’ve made the decision to do so. That’s your fault. It doesn’t matter where it came from originally.

@iamthemob… I think things that are in your mailbox or on your property at your home are slightly different than the items placed on your vehicle, but I understand your point.

@sleepdoc – yeah – and just to clarify further, they are very different – but in either case you’re not alleviated from dealing with it responsibly just because you didn’t ask for it in the first place. ;-)

As is a flier on my car would upset me. My car looks like a trash can anyway.

@iamthemob Well, our friend Maddox already provided me with a solution for junk mail; just Junk the Junk with prepaid postage envelopes.

So if start my own oak coffin making business and as a business promotion I decided to leave one of my 180lb coffins directly behind your parked vehicle in a parking lot, disallowing you to pull out and drive off, it would be your responsibility to responsibly deal with the coffin I left you, regardless on whether or not you wanted the coffin in the first place?

If you drop it, you are just passing the problem on to another innocent person. The flier/trash is never going to get back to the business that placed it there so someone along the line is simply going to have to step up and toss it in the trash. Why not be that person? It isn’t that difficult.

@Disc2021 In response to your questions:

How is it irresponsible?
When you throw the paper on the ground, it is irresponsible. Did you really have to ask? Does someone else’s action really have that much bearing on what you do?

How is it my responsibility to tend to the trash of someone’s lousy business promotions?
You are opinionated, and you should realize it. Just because their business promotions offend you, doesn’t mean Sally, who parked behind you, didn’t appreciate it. When you are debating the effectiveness of something, never use words that cannot be “proven”. Because the advertising model of passing out flyers is one of the oldest in our modern era, and has proven very effective, people will continue doing it, simply because it works. They are not responsible for how you feel towards them. Next.

They should compensate me for my janitorial services if I’m expected to properly dispose of their junk.
Or you could place a small sticker in your window [since it happens as frequently as you’re talking about] saying you do not appreciate flyer advertisements, and do not want any papers placed on your car. That’s simple. Next.

How would you like if I came to your home and stuck a row of 50 business fliers into your lawn while you are at work and told you it was your responsibility to clean up after my non-offensive business promotion?
I wouldn’t like it at all. But businesses don’t advertise like that, do they? No single business places 50, or even 2 fliers on another person’s property. They leave it at one, because that’s the polite thing to do. Your analogy was very poor. Next.

A little extreme, but I’m trying to articulate my point here.
I agree it’s extreme, and you failed to articulate. Next.

I get the whole, we have a larger responsibility to our planet to be green-friendly and to never liter, regardless, but these D-bags are just making all of our jobs a lot harder, if not disobeying that responsibility to begin with.
They are not littering, because the paper is being placed on something – and not the ground. The paper has a purpose for being where it is. When you throw the paper on the ground, it has no purpose. That’s the difference between you and the advertiser. You are the irresponsible one.

@squirbel… you did miss one thing in your argument. Many parking lots are not public property. Depending on where you live the distribution of advertising material on private property is illegal, the whole littering question aside. There are several large chain stores that will stop individuals from distributing flyers in the parking lots. I have even seen the police contacted in one instance where the person failed to stop doing it.

A definition of what littering is. It starts out by saying that “knowingly depositing in any manner” so I guess both the person that puts the flier on the property and the one that moves it from one property to the next are littering.

link

@Disc2021 – Really?

If you put an inanimate object anywhere, that’s your choice, and you get to deal with the consequences if that choice was thoughtless, lazy, stupid or mean. Approaching the coffin example as if it could really at any point be taken seriously as something that might happen – you could push it away, and if you caused damage because of you pushing it the owner of the property damaged could sue you. You, of course, could sue the coffin company in turn. You could also call the police and have them remove the coffin and bring charges against the building company. You could also call the company and demand they come and move it and see what happens.

It’s not that you’re responsible to remove it…it’s that you’re responsible for whatever happens because of what you choose to do with it.

You seem to think that you being responsible on one side means that the person leaving the mailing also isn’t. See @sleepdoc‘s link above, and also there may be public advertising regulations that the flier-leaver is violating, and you could inform about that and pursue the cause as much as you want.

@sleepdoc

Good link- thanks for posting that. :-)

@squirbel When you throw the paper on the ground, it is irresponsible. Did you really have to ask? Does someone else’s action really have that much bearing on what you do? Yes, because I dont think I should be responsible for throwing away the trash of businesses. You’re missing the point; it’s like me coming to drop off my trash every Thursday in your garbage can because I don’t want to go through the trouble of paying for my own garbage disposal.

In response to the Sally stuff: With this logic, if I want to promote my business by polluting the environment, I could argue that I’m not responsible for how others feel about how I choose to promote my business. Legislature doesn’t get written until people like me challenge what should be legal and what shouldn’t. What if I decided to promote my saran-wrap business by wrapping your vehicle in saran wrap? Suppose Sally then really appreciates the quality of saran wrap and therefore decides to buy the product. So, tough beans to you because you don’t appreciate your vehicle wrapped in saran-wrap? Companies should be allowed to advertise however they choose regardless of how many citizens they piss off, simply because it works? Communism also works.

Or you could place a small sticker in your window [since it happens as frequently as you’re talking about] saying you do not appreciate flyer advertisements, and do not want any papers placed on your car. That’s simple. Next. – Or they could just not leave any fliers on my car to begin with, that’s even more simple. Next.

I wouldn’t like it at all. But businesses don’t advertise like that, do they? No single business places 50, or even 2 fliers on another person’s property. They leave it at one, because that’s the polite thing to do. Your analogy was very poor. I’ve already acknowledged that businesses don’t advertise like that but your logic suggests that they can and should if someone appears to appreciate it. I dont think it’s very polite to leave anything on anyone’s car, period. Be it one flier or 50. That’s the point…

I agree it’s extreme, and you failed to articulate. You’re very polite =D.

I could argue that by tossing the flier on the ground, I was just leaving behind what was rightfully the companies to begin with and that I assumed they’d be back to pick it up.

@iamthemob I was under the impression that business don’t have any responsibility as far as putting their fliers on windshields go, thank you for clearing that up.

I dont know why they do these things, in that case.

@sleepdoc Ahh, thank you.

@Disc2021

Is it littering? Well DUHHHHH!H!

Aside from the general annoyance of having to pick up other people’s trash, I don’t want people messing around with my car. It’s private property, too.

But I totally see where @Disc2021 is coming from. It’s annoying to the point where you just want to bop someone over the head. Should it be the car owner’s responsibility to throw it in the trash? No. If it wasn’t asked for, it shouldn’t be there. Is it littering to just toss it on the ground? Sure it is. Would the company that printed the flyers be responsible for that littering? No, not a bit.

I don’t find it to be littering to have the thing placed on my windshield. I agree that it’s mostly unwanted and ineffective for me—I’ve never been swayed by this form of advertising—but it’s no more ‘littering’ than receiving junk mail is. I get that all the time, too.

Once it has become ‘mine’ by finding its way onto my car or my mailbox, then the responsibility is mine to dispose of it responsibly, too. And I don’t mean by leaving it in my neighbor’s mailbox or on his car, either… but that’s a neat idea.

I don’t have time to look it up and I could be wrong, but much like a sidewalk your mailbox is kind of owned by the USPS (in the US). So, anything that goes by normal channels can find its way to your mailbox. I don’t think it’s technically legal for someone to go by and drop stuff in there, though. Not non-postal service people. Like I said, I could be wrong but that’s how it was explained to me.

Your car, if it’s your car, is your property. What you’re saying is that I can walk by and put an empty Orange Julius cup under your windshield wiper and that’s OK. I’m saying I’d be pissed if someone started mucking around my car without my permission. I do consider it littering; I don’t use it, I don’t want it, I didn’t ask for it.

And then there’s another difference: junk mail in your mailbox probably won’t break it. If someone is putting things on your windshield there’s no telling what could happen. They could lose their balance and break a side mirror, they could lean against your Corvette and leave a dent, a belt buckle leaves a scratch on your cherry paint job. It could even be something like frozen rain stuck your wiper to the glass and when they picked it up to slide the paper under the rubber stuck to the windshield. Now you’re a safety hazard if it starts to rain or snow by the time you’re done with your groceries.

@mrentropy Exactly, exactly my point. I dont think anyone necessarily wants their car to be messed with, for that matter and cars nowadays aren’t exactly inexpensive. I dont remember the last time I walked into work or class and heard someone say “Gee, totally made my day this morning! Someone was kind enough to leave a business flier on my windshield so I dont have to go through the trouble of finding the information myself. How considerate!”. I believe that people’s private property should be respected at all costs – and that usually entails staying the-hell away from it, unless otherwise permitted to do so by the rightful owner. It would be different if I called up Nutsack + Wiener’s Driveway Paving” and said “Hello, would you guys be so kind to drop by my vehicle (license plate #...) Monday morning while I’m in class and stick one of your business fliers underneath my windshield wipers? I’m very interested in the services you have to offer and I would really enjoy the luxury of having more information in one of them convenient little fliers”. You are correct, that it is highly illegal to leave anything, take anything, tamper, touch or break anyone’s mailbox.

@CaptainHarley I know it’s littering. My hidden question is should this really be tolerated, especially if we would then be taking up the unwanted responsibility by having this crap left on our property and having to properly dispose of it? Who is the real liter-bug in this situation, the one who goes through the trouble of printing out a billion copies of business fliers and leaving them on the property of someone else, only to be trashed one way or another, or the one’s who are frustrated with these shenanigans?

@CyanoticWasp When exactly does it become littering? What you’re saying is that anyone has the power to come up and leave any of their junk on your car and it then becomes yours in that you gain responsibility for it. I think that is just downright ridiculous; I dont think anyone should have the right to put anything on anyone’s car without the owner’s consent.

@Disc2021

- this may be the most effective way small businesses, without many resources, have to advertise.

- the inconvenience to the population is about at the same level as watching commercials during your television show in the vast majority of cases – I haven’t heard any report of a drastic level of damage done by fliers to cars. Cars are less private property as a mix of private and public property legally (in terms of the privacy rights involved in it) – and if you leave your car out in a parking lot or elsewhere in public, one of the trade-offs is someone, you know…might touch it.

- they will annoy a certain part of the population, but may actually inform another part of something that will help them.

- if it is allowed by municipal regulations, then it is not littering – businesses do a lot in pursuit of revenue that creates waste, a lot of it by necessity, and this would be just another instance.

- if it is forbidden by municipal regulation, it will continue unless citizens take the responsibility to report the businesses doing it. If enough do it that the potential business return is outweighed by the fines paid for the municipal violations, the practice will stop.

Hey guess what? I think it’s littering too!

Actually, I hate junk mail more, if you want to know the truth of it. Junk mail costs me (in the form of higher charges than warranted for First Class and other mail rates) in order to subsidize it. A flyer on my car is a minor… very, very minor… inconvenience.

I agree that they ought not to be used, but apparently that form of advertising does have some effectiveness, or it probably would have died out a long time ago. I haven’t seen any Burrma Shave signs recently… unfortunately, what I see instead is worse.

So maybe you should be thankful it’s just a flyer on a windshield. Next it could be a ‘temporary’ painted sign. (And don’t forget reverse psychology: If I were pitching Pepsi Cola® I might paint a sign on your car to ‘advertise’ Coke® instead.)

@iamthemob – So if the most effective way for me to do my homework is by blaring my music obnoxiously loud at 12AM, does that justify the noise pollution my neighbors have to endure? I’m all about small business promoting their business, but not by littering my car or by touching my property.

- (1) The difference is commercials are not touching my property or leaving me with the responsibility to dispose of any unwanted tangible/physical solid/debris. I’m not knocking advertising – I’m knocking invasive advertising that insists on touching my property and leaving behind unwanted residue. (2) You haven’t heard of any cases in which someone’s car was damaged as a result of a business flier left on a windshield, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t any cases of it. Who’s to say that the nick on the driver-side fender on my car didn’t come from the idiot who left the flier on my car. (3) You’re right to some degree but if someone purchases (with money) a vehicle in their name, it’s still their private property and that doesn’t give anyone else the right to do as they please with it/to it, unjustifiably. (4) Right, someone might touch our cars if we leave them out in public… does that give them the right to touch our cars? Does that give me the right to walk up to the exterior of your home and touch/do whatever I want with it?

- There are more productive, less expensive and annoying ways to do just that… without touching my car.

- If I’m parking in a particular area that allows the “fliering” of cars, I can understand that. Anywhere else, I don’t.

- Right on!

@CyanoticWasp – Hey, you’re right. If that ever happens, I’d probably boycott both brands and drink water or juice instead.

What exactly prompted me to ask this question was the other day when I, returning to the parking lot, found that every car on the lot was “fliered”. I then watched an elderly woman get into her car, start it up, then notice the stupid flier outside on her windshield and have to get out to remove the damn thing. It’s like Christ, leave our cars alone.

I don’t see how it isn’t.

It is littering, just as littering would be taking mail you didn’t ask for and don’t want and dropping it on the ground and walking away. Once in your, or your car’s, possession, it is yours. And you need to responsibly get rid of it. Annoying but, in the scheme of things, kind of insignificant.

So if the most effective way for me to do my homework is by blaring my music obnoxiously loud at 12AM, does that justify the noise pollution my neighbors have to endure?

Really again? No, this is not the same. You know of course that there are noise ordinances preventing this from happening unabated.

I never claimed that there weren’t any cases, but I haven’t heard this being a huge problem, and it has and will always go on. There are reasons that it happens, and there are good reasons for it.

This is a minor, minor imposition in our daily lives. The same as telemarketers and, back in the day, door-to-door salesmen. If they’ve done something illegal, you can find out and tell them. You can also call them and say that you will never use any service that advertises in that way. If you really don’t like it – do something about it, and see if it works.

If not, it really is one of those things that we deal with and have dealt with, in some way shape or form, forever. It seems you’re taking it as a bigger imposition than it is, but regardless of your reaction it doesn’t give you license to react how you feel without there being repercussions for you.

Personal responsibility trumps every time. I have, in fact, gone around and picked up everyones trash that I see lying on the parking lot.

@disc

Yes, because I dont think I should be responsible for throwing away the trash of businesses. You’re missing the point; it’s like me coming to drop off my trash every Thursday in your garbage can because I don’t want to go through the trouble of paying for my own garbage disposal.

I’m missing the point? Heh. The business is not depositing trash onto your window, they are placing their advertisement on your window. Your perception is preventing you from being objective, and therefore, you are no match for my words.

In response to the Sally stuff: With this logic, if I want to promote my business by polluting the environment, I could argue that I’m not responsible for how others feel about how I choose to promote my business. Legislature doesn’t get written until people like me challenge what should be legal and what shouldn’t. What if I decided to promote my saran-wrap business by wrapping your vehicle in saran wrap? Suppose Sally then really appreciates the quality of saran wrap and therefore decides to buy the product. So, tough beans to you because you don’t appreciate your vehicle wrapped in saran-wrap? Companies should be allowed to advertise however they choose regardless of how many citizens they piss off, simply because it works? Communism also works.
All of this fluff writing – le sigh. I have one question: Is placing a flyer effective advertising, or is providing the service for random people, thereby skipping out on revenue most effective? Of course, the flyer! You should go back to school to learn more effective analogy creation. Again, you are “pissed off” by the advertising, but you are the minority, and you are considered the “risk factor” to advertisers.

Or they could just not leave any fliers on my car to begin with, that’s even more simple.
When do you expect them to contact you and ask if they can leave something? Ha! Um…the sticker works.

I’ve already acknowledged that businesses don’t advertise like that but your logic suggests that they can and should if someone appears to appreciate it. I dont think it’s very polite to leave anything on anyone’s car, period. Be it one flier or 50. That’s the point…
Businesses can and should advertise in whatever ways they can, as long as they are not intrusive. Leaving a flyer on a car is not intrusive.

You’re very polite =D.
And you aren’t. You’re an irresponsible person who’s pissed off at small businesses because they are trying to drum up business, and immature because you’re reasoning that “If they do wrong, then I’ll do wrong.”

I could argue that by tossing the flier on the ground, I was just leaving behind what was rightfully the companies to begin with and that I assumed they’d be back to pick it up.
And you know you’d be lying because your intent was to be rid of it and you don’t care if the company comes to pick it up. What matters is not the word-dancing – it’s the intent.

You’re a litterer if you toss the flyer on the ground; end of story.

@iamthemob – Yes, really! If businesses can promote their business in whatever way they find to be effective regardless of who it’s harming, why can’t I do whatever I want, regardless of who I’m bothering? The point is if I dont want fliers left on my car or anyone touching my car, there shouldn’t be anyone putting fliers on my car, or touching my car for the purposes of putting fliers on them – for the same reasons that no one should be allowed to touch or put things in a woman’s purse or invade anyone’s property for any reason without permission. I’m fighting for principle here.

- Not if I can help it!

- Telemarketers are not leaving paper in, on or around my property, nor are they touching it. Door-to-door salemen, although are entering my property, are not leaving anything on my property and could otherwise be asked to leave I’ve some vivid memories of my dad forcing an aggressive, pathological hamburger sales-person off of our property.

- Minor imposition or not, It’s against my will to leave anyone with the responsibility of cleaning up your business advertisements.

I’m finding it increasingly hilarious that everyone responds under the assumption that I tossed the fliers that are left on my car on the ground. I only asked a question and stated my stance on the issue

@ disc
So if the most effective way for me to do my homework is by blaring my music obnoxiously loud at 12AM, does that justify the noise pollution my neighbors have to endure? I’m all about small business promoting their business, but not by littering my car or by touching my property.

Poor analogy, yet again. Whereas your music listening habits requires best judgement, the leaving of flyers on cars is a black and white issue – leave it, or don’t.

- (1) The difference is commercials are not touching my property or leaving me with the responsibility to dispose of any unwanted tangible/physical solid/debris. I’m not knocking advertising – I’m knocking invasive advertising that insists on touching my property and leaving behind unwanted residue.
Not every business can afford commercials, and you’re being a tad bit too touchy for someone to touch your car briefly.

(2) You haven’t heard of any cases in which someone’s car was damaged as a result of a business flier left on a windshield, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t any cases of it. Who’s to say that the nick on the driver-side fender on my car didn’t come from the idiot who left the flier on my car.
If it hasn’t been heard of, it’s likely it doesn’t exist. Otherwise, I’ll continue to believe in fairies because my tooth was always gone in the morning.

(3) You’re right to some degree but if someone purchases (with money) a vehicle in their name, it’s still their private property and that doesn’t give anyone else the right to do as they please with it/to it, unjustifiably.
For most people, it belongs to the bank. :) As your private property, there’s no law that says no one else can touch it. Seriously, there isn’t.

(4) Right, someone might touch our cars if we leave them out in public… does that give them the right to touch our cars? Does that give me the right to walk up to the exterior of your home and touch/do whatever I want with it?
There’s no law preventing people from touching private property. There is, however, support from the law if you place a sign saying “No Trespassing” on your lawn. Bad analogy again.

There are more productive, less expensive and annoying ways to do just that… without touching my car.
Name them, please. There aren’t.

who would have thought these flyers could evoke so much passion?

Why can’t the person slapping fliers on cars stand on a street corner and hand fliers out to people, who could choose to take a flier or not?

I don’t remember volunteering to be at the whim of a business who wants to advertise. And, while I can sympathize with a small business, I still don’t think that gives them the right to fool with property that doesn’t belong to them.

It would probably be a lot more effective to simply gather up a bunch of them and take them or mail them to the mall owners and ask that the company be fined.

What @YARNLADY said.

@Disc2021 – As I have stated repeatedly – if there’s no law or regulation against it, the other option you have is consumer action in responding to it. No one is telling you that you should like it – it’s simply that you’re getting way, way, way to wrapped up in the fact that someone is touching your car, and relating it to things that are completely different and much more intrusive. When you turn the claim that getting fliers on your car is something that we deal with (unless, as I said, you try some action to stop it) into an assertion that we get to do anything we want to because who cares about anything else is the quintessential example of the slippery slope argument.

Putting a flier on your windshield is, in terms of contact, the functional equivalent of knocking on your door or ringing your doorbell. It takes very little effort to dismiss the sales advance, and if it’s really interrupting your day…well…I would suggest yoga.

You have options of what you can do. However, feeling like you get to do something wrong because you feel you’ve been wronged is inappropriate in any situation. So do something, or get over it.

@YARNLADY – Good suggestion!

@squirbel – Uhm, I believe that your previous comment to me should have been directed at @Disc2021…?

@squirbel – Onto or on, it’s still on my property, sweetie.

- It’s not necessarily effective if all it’s really doing is aggravating random people. Picking random parking lots isn’t really indicative of knowing where or who exactly your market is. Where is your proof that it is so effective, or that a good % of everyone in a given parking lot is “swayed” by this style of marketing? If I were that “pissed” off, I probably would’ve contacted the company by now and gave them a piece of my mind… I’m on a forum site, online, creating random discussion while doing homework. So on the contrary, why dont you relax?

- I don’t expect business to contact me for my approval on whether or not they can drop fliers off on my car, hence why I dont expect them to leave anything on my car. Not leaving anything on my car also works =D. Point?

- It is intrusive, in my opinion. You don’t mind crap being left on your car, I do.

- How am I reasoning that “If they do wrong, I’ll do wrong”?

- No, I wouldn’t be necessarily. My mother suggested that I round up all of the trash left behind from my friends whenever they’ve left a mess behind in my house or in my car. Same story here – I’d personally appreciate if whoever left this crap everywhere came, picked it up, and properly disposed of it themselves. I’ve got a stack of random fliers, somewhere.

For someone who claims to be objective and superior, you sure do use a lot of ad hominem and personal attacks. I’ll respond to this much more:

There are more productive, less expensive and annoying ways to do just that… without touching my car.
Name them, please. There aren’t.

How about networking? How about business cards? How about figuring out where your market actually exists instead of placing fliers everywhere imaginable? For example, does it really make sense to be placing lawn care fliers all over a university parking lot? How about figuring out the most effective way to reach your market? That’s a good place to start.

Regarding the junk mail issue, my dad used to love taking the “postage paid” envelope out of whatever junk offer he got and mailing back the junk mail to the company that sent it. Just so they would have to pay the postage.

@cockswain That’s exactly what I used to do. I truly enjoyed ripping up the contents and stuffing them back into the postage paid envelop.

@iamthemob Perhaps we can agree to disagree that knocking on someone’s door isn’t exactly a functional equivalent of placing things on personal property. While there aren’t any specific laws against it, I think there should be.

@mrentropy Why couldn’t they have just done that? – is exactly the question I’m faced with.

@YARDLADY Good idea! Perhaps I’ll try that next time the opportunity presents itself.

@cockswain I’ve done it a few times and I think it’s hilarious. I don’t know why it hasn’t already occurred to me until you’ve mentioned it, but I think I may send off a few of these fliers…

Dad was an asshole alright. He also put a fake name in the phone book to screen telemarketers.

@Disc2021

If this is the only thing you have to worry about, you’re lightyears ahead of the rest of us.

this reminds me of a joke by the late great Mitch Hedburg. “When someone hands you a flyer it’s like he’s saying, ‘Here, you throw this away.’

@disc2021 Everything you wrote is the same as before. You’re saying you’re offended, and that the method is completely ineffective because you’re agitated by it. I stopped following this question for a reason.

Make your world view just a tad bit wider, so that you’ll understand you are not that important. No one person is. People will not throw their hands up and say “This isn’t effective” just because you or a few other people are offended.

Be like me, and don’t sweat it. It’s a very, very, very small issue and can be handled maturely; ie., throwing the paper away in a proper receptacle. Take issue with something more important, like the healthcare system or increasing tuition in higher education.

@Disc2021 requested that I look at the thread to see what new things he posted. I said all I needed to say the first time around, only to come back to his snotty remarks. Le sigh.

Morally, you’re just moving their litter off your property. There’s nothing wrong with that. They littered by putting it on your car in the first place, so they’re morally responsible for the chain of events they started. However, there are a couple things to consider.

1. The law where you live may or may not consider the action to be (wrongfully) littering. However, even if it does, you’re unlikely to be caught.

2. The company is unlikely to face their responsibility to pick up their trash. It’s much more effective if you take the flier home and prank call them several times or otherwise punish them for their littering.

Technically, yes. The person who put it there littered when they put it on your car, but you littered again when you threw it on the ground. However, there are two loopholes.

1. Ask for a jury trial. No jury would convict you because everyone feels the same way. Everyone WANTS the right to throw it on the ground. Everyone WANTS the person who put it on the car to be held responsible. And the judge cannot overturn a jury’s acquittal. You have a right to a jury trial, even if it’s a municipal littering offence.

2. And this loophole is less expensive,so it’s what I do. Lift the wiper and just let the wind blow the flier off the car. Technically, if you never touch the flier, you didn’t put it on the ground, and the person who put it on your car is guilty of littering wherever it may end up, leaving your hands legally clean.

From a moral standpoint, no. You have no obligation to throw away another person’s trash, and you have every moral right to quickly and easily move it off your property any way you see fit. These loopholes help you exercise your moral right within the confines of the stupid law.