I get very annoyed at the people that don't pick them up and just leave an ugly mess in their driveway. YET, they walk right by them every freakin' trash day and cannot bend over to pick them up and throw them in their trash can even though they are 2 feet away from them...UGH! I like getting these papers, they have coupons and the local grocery store ads in them.

I have to walk out to get the mail and pick them up. Also that's where I get grocery ads since they don't always come in the daily newspaper. I agree that letting them pile up in your driveway isn't the best look and doesn't enhance your house.

I called the paper and told them to stop throwing them in my driveway. I can't seem to stop that ad stuff that comes in my mailbox, but I was able to stop the paper.

They don't bother me - we only get them once a week, and they are easy enough to pick up and recycle. I do not see them piling up in anyone's yard/driveway in my neighborhood.

Where I live, if you put up a "no junk mail" sign on your mailbox, it stops all this unsolicited stuff.

Ours land on the door mat. They usually go straight to recycling. I don't mind them I know a couple of local businesses and clubs that have benefited from the publicity they've received from them. I don't blame or have any ill will towards the people who deliver them.

Ours used to be a newspaper of sorts, now it is only ads. I don't mind, it saves me having to look them up online. I browse and toss in the recycle bin.

This week, DH drove over it, so it was ripped up and muddy.

Still better than all the political ads in my mailbox. At least they'll stop. For a while.

aok, it's interesting how people approach the same thing in opposite ways. I go online so that I don't have to browse through the free newspapers. My wife takes your approach.

I hate them too. I called and asked that they stop delivering them to me. They put a little sticker on my mailbox, and I no longer get them.

I hate looking at them in the driveway of other homes in the neighborhood. I wish they would all call, because obviously they’re not interested in reading it either.

For people that just leave them to decompose "who do you think is going to pick these up FOR YOU?" Or the old "your mother isn't here to pick these up so do it yourself you lazy......etc etc". As you can see, it's a pet peeve of mine to see people leaving that trash in their driveways.

No idea what you're talking about. The only newspaper in our driveway is the one we subscribe to.

What would you do if a stranger stopped at your house once a week or once every few days and threw THEIR trash on your front yard? Would that bother you?

We used to get one once a week at our old house...didn’t mind it and it actually had local news. Then they wanted us to pay for it and when I didn’t, it stopped. Guess out in the country where I live now, it’s too much trouble so not an issue. If only we could stop the stupid phone book deliveries! There was an email address on them specifically to request no delivery, and when I did that, they mailed me a letter explaining they couldn’t...something to do with it being a bulk delivery. We have a community box cluster and they end up laying on top the boxes forever because NOBODY uses phone books!

I made a phone call, too, and they stopped delivering the nuisance pages. I don't want the ads or coupons.

(Penny, you are not saving trees by stopping delivery of the annoying papers.)

I like ours, it is the only true place to get local information. Our big newspaper is now "USA Today-lite", and it's difficult to get any useful local news. The supermarket fliers are separate and get delivered with the mail.

OT--Nick your comment just now appeared for me...

Oh Houzz....

I've called the publisher to stop delivery a couple times and it works for about 6 months, but then they start throwing one again. I sort each one for paper that I can compost or use under mulch, paper that needs to go to recycling, and the plastic bag that can be recycled through grocery stores.

Once in a while an advertiser will put a freebie in these papers (which are more than 90% advertising these days). When they had mini boxes of breakfast cereals, I saw a woman walking along the sidewalk collecting the papers from the sidewalk in front of each house. I guess she was looking forward to many breakfasts.

I had that happen about 25 years ago. The local rag decided to toss their papers for free in my driveway for a week. I was on vacation and out of town that week. I came back and it looked like I wasn't home and was free for robbing...

When they called me the next day to see how I liked my free week of their rag... I let them have it. And no, I never subscribed.

pennydesign, it might be that I am posting from a hotel with still reasonable but not superfast internet connection; it could be my tablet which is running Android 7 (apparently other users get flags and a host of accessories that my version of the app doesn't trust me to play with responsibly). Or it could just be Houzz.

We don’t get them but I’d be annoyed if we did especially if I was on vacation as it would then appear no one was home.

once a year we still get a yellow pages type phone book....another waste. That goes right in the outdoor recycling bin.

any coupons we get come in the junk mail that goes in my mailbox, never on the driveway.

I get two fee ones a week-different papers, but both local. I always pick them up and also get irritated by those who don't. I have also begun reading them! As far as I am concerned, I think it is wonderful to have local print newspapers, especially when so many print resources are closing. I definitely don't consider them trash and hope the publishers are successful.

ETA: just remembered that we have a new third one which is supposed to be our "good news" newspaper. Fun.

It’s littering plain and simple. I called twice, Then I came home from being away for work and found 3-4 wet and moldy In my driveway. I put them in a trash bag, let the mess cook in my truck in the Florida heat for 4-5 days... and I stopped in to their little store from... dumped the bag right inside the door, explained that I was going to call again, I would just return them... its littering

From what I remember when my brother delivered the Pennysaver on Long Island, the littering is a legal issue. He had to hang the bags on the front door handle because they were not allowed to use the normal mail box. Seems crazy to me. It's my front door and I should decide who gets to put stuff through it, not the US Mail.

Wow. Just wow.

I used to get them thrown at the end of my driveway at my old house three blocks away, and I called them and asked them to stop. There are two “hometown” free papers and I don’t want both of them. The other is left in my mailbox and includes all of the local store flyers. It took a couple of calls but they finally stopped. For some reason at my new house they don’t throw them. Though I do see them at some of the neighbors. Maybe the previous owner had them stopped.

What I think they should do is have a display of them at grocery store entrances so people that want them could pick them up...it would also be much easier for their carriers to just put them in a box once a week or so.

I just don't understand why it's so difficult to pick up the paper and recycle it though. We spend countless hours raking and bagging leaves out of our yards but yet can't take 5 seconds to bend down and pick up a paper. I just don't get it!

That's what they do I a lot of Europe, arkansas girl (have them in supermarkets). That said there are some that come through our door - no point leaving them in the rain in England. Either way, it's not a lot of trouble to pick them up. We live near a school, so I'm often picking up snack packaging from our hedge.

It isn’t difficult to pick up the paper, it’s the principle, for me. I consider it an intrusion on my right to enjoy my property when someone regularly drives by and throws something I don’t want onto it. What if it was someone who drove by once a week and threw an empty beer can instead of the paper, or the neighbor with the pooping dog. Not hard to pick up. I guess I’m just territorial.

We don't get papers or flyers anywhere but in our mailbox, and then it's just the usual weekly grocery store ads and such. I'd be annoyed if there was unwanted junk being tossed in my drive or yard though. Recently we did get a phone book tossed on our front porch, which seems like a colossal waste of resources these days. I haven't used an actual phone book in many years. The only other item I can recall getting here was a plastic bag from a company selling faux grass, with a sizable sample included. We tossed ours, but our neighbor just left theirs lying where it fell, as though they may have thought they weren't supposed to move it. For all I know, it could still be there.

I also don't wish a rash on the delivery people. Imagine having to accept that kind of work. None of us would want to be in those shoes.

They are very difficult to stop. I tried once, I wasted so much time making phone calls and sending requests for stopping them - and to this day, they continue. This whole "send unsolicited adds" thing should absolutely be illegal. This is not just a violation of an individual"s property but a huge waste of resources that should be identified as such and outlawed. Trashing the environment is an actual thing and it's serious. I don't need "climate change experts" to tell me that "stuff" exists or doesn't. I see it and it's due to human activity. No, I take that back, just our mere existence. People will end up suffocating each other with all their junk, over-consumption and desire for a "better life", while their numbers invariably go up. As far-fetched as it sounds, the mass shootings we see almost every day now is not a completely unrelated thing.

It is correct that this is about a principle , and I would also add long-term consequences at the societal level . This is not about whether someone is too lazy to pick up and throw away. I shouldn't have to be forced to do so, no matter how lazy or hard-working I am. While I can surely empathize with the need of some small businesses to make their service or product known, there's got to be a better way than wasting so many resources and forcing people to regularly accept junk on their drive-way and pick up after whoever needs to advertise.

In the end, there are simply too many people doing too many unnecessary things who, naturally, want to make a (better) living - just like everyone else. That's the scary truth that no one wants to touch with a ten foot pole.

It's part of home ownership to keep your place picked up and looking nice, whether it's picking up garbage that lands in our yards or phone books or newspapers or mowing the grass...whatever it, it's our responsibility as a home owner. I'd say that I pick up a piece of trash from my yard at least once a week...probably more than that. I also walk my dog and pick up trash in other people's yards that are too lazy to do it themselves, I guess they think they have a personal maid or something. I cannot stand to see litter on our street...it makes our neighborhood look disgusting!

I rarely find trash in my yard, but when I do, it is usually something left by a worker who was installing something next door, or something like that. When I lived in Venice, someone left an X-rated Polaroid photo in my front yard. It was pretty funny looking to me, and I could see why they did not want to keep it.

We don't get those here. We do get a newspaper/coupon wad thing in the mailbox on Wednesdays. At least I don't have to bend over to pick it up.

arkansas,

Many of us who strongly oppose the practice DO pick up the yard anyway, whether we like it or not. We just do it grudgingly. That doesn't address the root of the problem though.

I would very much love to subscribe to any proposal/policy that could outlaw this practice.

I agree with begonia...it's a bit more than litter...it's litter with some kind of solicitation (ads, whether in newspapers or not, want your money...

I pick up litter all the time, but this is different...the intent is different. And that's what irks me.

*steps off soapbox* :)

Saypoint: It isn’t difficult to pick up the paper, it’s the principle, for me. -- agreed. It's not easy of course to pick up the paper when you are out of town for the week when they decide to do this. And it just sits there, decaying, and saying "hey Artemis is NOT HOME!". That's what I object to.

I live between rental houses. I usually pick up the papers and toss them on the porches out of sight when the homes are not rented. I'm picking up for three houses sometimes.