Am I alone in my frustration at the latest trend for advertising material by supermarkets and other organisations to now appear on the ground at the foot of my letterbox which has a “No Junk Mail” sticker?
I have no beef with those people who read and gain information from such literature when it is placed legally in their letterbox, but I choose otherwise.
An email to Central Coast Council was answered fairly quickly but the essence of the reply was that I needed to provide details of the perpetrator for action to be taken.
That is difficult, when the nuisance appears to happen during darkness at the foot of our long driveway.
When I supplied images of the material, I was told the Council Officer would contact the distribution company.
The material kept coming.
I had to resort to a large hand-written ugly sign before the pollution stopped.
I then removed the sign and the illegal rubbish appeared again.
Yes, it is illegal because Section 144A of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 defines advertising material as any paper product (including a leaflet, brochure or magazine) or other material thing, that contain advertising or promotional matter.
Advertising material can only be deposited in three ways – directly into people’s letterboxes, into newspaper receptacles or under doors to premises.
People cannot place advertising material under a vehicle’s windscreen wipers (or wedged into a car door), on top of property gates or fences, in a public place, in open private places and in other inappropriate areas where it has the potential to become litter.
The pile of such material outside some homes in our street clearly signals to those of a light-fingered persuasion that the house is empty.
If you have a similar problem, please join me in my single-handed campaign to stop this latest violation of our pollution laws and do something for the environment.
SOURCE:
Email, 2 Sept 2020
Terry Jones, Killcare Heights