Not to put too fine a point on it, but unless there is a local ordinance prohibiting that form of advertising, yes. Localities differ in the applicability of littering and/or trespass laws to stuff stuck under your windshield wipers, dropped on your doorstep, hung from your front doorhandle, tossed in your driveway, etc.
Your location field indicates Ireland. In the US, one place this sort of crap DOES NOT turn up is in your mailbox. The US Postal Service makes no bones about nothing but US mail being allowed to get delivered through the mailbox, whose interior they claim is actually the property of the USPS. People who distribute ad circulars and free newspapers know to steer clear of your mailbox. They won’t shove stuff through a front door slot like I have, either. This is why rural delivery of newspapers via “tube route” requires the newspaper to provide the customer with their own tube for the paper to be mounted next to the mailbox.
Throwing litter on the ground is wrong regardless of why it’s in your possession. Throw it in the trash or take it in to the business where you were shopping. The retailer I worked at called the people on the fliers and let them know the the store would not allow it to continue. The company would have pursued this with a lawyer if need be. The neighbors at different times have thrown there garbage mail and papers.on the ground, and it ends up in our yard. You can actually get a foot high pile of paper under the mail box after the snow melts. These have been renter’s and if they don’t wish to stop when told we are not happy with their trash, we will call the police. A suggestion if they deliver it in a box for the free paper is that you take down the box. They stop delivering if the box is gone. I don’t want the free papers, but when it comes US mail all you can do is pile it up and trash it, or remove the mail box too. You can leave the free papers in post office trash when you go there to get your mail they no longer deliver.
There was a similar issue here in Baltimore last year when a new free daily, The Examiner, started delivering newspapers to people’s front door.
Some people didn’t want them and told the paper so. The person on the other end of the phone would agree to stop delivery, but the papers would just keep coming. The paper said that the fault rested with the delivery drivers, who were not complying with the requests to stop delivery.
After a while, some people began to get very pissed off. These types of deliveries are a nuisance, and they can also open you up to things like burglary. There’s no better indicator that someone is away on vacation than five or six uncollected newspapers sitting on the front lawn. Anyway, the folks at the paper finally made clear the the delivery drivers that people who had requested to be left off the delivery list should not get papers delivered to them.
My experience with free papers.
I called twice to get delivery stopped the first time.
Then delivery would start again approximately every 3 months.
It became obvious that this signaled the arrival of a new delivery driver.
So a polite phone call every 3 months or so was enough to keep the garbage off of the lawn. The person on the other end of the line was always very polite and apologetic when reminded that I had called numerous times.
I didn’t like the bother of calling numerous times, but didn’t see any other option, and it was better than picking up the trash every week.
We have faced this situation several times over the past few years. It’s littering, plain & simple, in my opinion to throw something in someones yard without being asked. I used to call or email & ask them to stop and they would comply until their distributor changed and the new one would just start throwing to everyone again.
I complained to our city secretary who passed my complaint to the chief of police & the city attorney. They both contacted me and the city attorney stated that I could file a complaint against them with his office which may or may not go to court. (depending on their workload, apparently)
These days, I get nasty about it. I call, email, threaten with complaint to the BBB, and send the editors of these ‘free’ newspapers snarky emails. In the case of one, there was no ‘contact us’ area on their website, but there was an area to post advertising (which they charge for of course), so I submitted a lengthy ad stating that I would like this newspaper to stop throwing trash in my yard while I was on vacation and the fact that I was going to sue them for any damage to my house caused by the fact that their ‘free’ newspaper was broadcasting the fact that no one was home. They didn’t publish the ad of course, but they DID get the message.
Same thing goes for these stupid ‘free’ telephone directories. Who the hell doesn’t use the Internet to search for a phone number of address these days?
We have faced this situation several times over the past few years. It’s littering, plain & simple, in my opinion to throw something in someones yard without being asked. I used to call or email & ask them to stop and they would comply until their distributor changed and the new one would just start throwing to everyone again.
I complained to our city secretary who passed my complaint to the chief of police & the city attorney. They both contacted me and the city attorney stated that I could file a complaint against them with his office which may or may not go to court. (depending on their workload, apparently)
These days, I get nasty about it. I call, email, threaten with complaint to the BBB, and send the editors of these ‘free’ newspapers snarky emails. In the case of one, there was no ‘contact us’ area on their website, but there was an area to post advertising (which they charge for of course), so I submitted a lengthy ad stating that I would like this newspaper to stop throwing trash in my yard while I was on vacation and the fact that I was going to sue them for any damage to my house caused by the fact that their ‘free’ newspaper was broadcasting the fact that no one was home. They didn’t publish the ad of course, but they DID get the message.
Same thing goes for these stupid ‘free’ telephone directories. Who the hell doesn’t use the Internet to search for a phone number or address these days?
I’m tempted to put up a sign telling the god-botherers and the charity collectors and assorted cause-pushers, as well as menu distributors, to stay away.