I know we should be wary of efforts to legislate pet peeves, but count me as a supporter of City Councilmember Simcha Felder's proposal [1] to allow New Yorkers to opt out of the stream of advertising circulars, menus, and other fliers currently being delivered unbidden onto our doorsteps.
It's bad enough, as a tenant, having to wade through a pile of soggy junk mail everytime you walk up your stoop. Throw them out, and more quickly appear. As Felder points out, homeowners have it even worse: they're on the hook with the Department of Sanitation for what is, essentially, someone else's garbage. And then there's the environmental cost of churning out all those plastic-wrapped papers. Felder isn't proposing an outright ban - just the chance to say no thanks to all the clutter. It's a do-not-call list for your front step.
I'm actually surprised that a bill like this hasn't been proposed already. Other cities do the same thing - for instance Amsterdam, where you can see, on every mailbox, a sticker indicating whether or not the building's residents want to receive the free junk. If I recall correctly, there are even a couple of options - for instance, one could say "yes" to menus but "no thank you" to piles of Rite-Aid coupons.
In the grand scheme of things, it's hardly a towering issue. But then quality of life is all about the little things, isn't it?
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