City Launches Campaign To Stop Unwanted Handbills

By Amy Bentley-Smith
Features Editor

They end up on doorsteps or rubber-banded to front doors, but nearly as often, they wind up in the streets.

That is how handbills — fliers and menus — become litter.

In an effort to prevent this type of litter, the city’s Environmental Services Bureau has started a “handbill reduction effort” campaign. It has a three-pronged approach: “Stop. No Advertisement” signs or door hangers for residents to post to discourage this form of advertisement; a complaint form on the bureau’s Litter Free Long Beach Web site, www.litterfreelb.org, to report advertisers who leave unwanted fliers and menus on doorsteps; and simple peer pressure put on businesses.

The campaign launched quietly about three months ago, said Bureau Manager James Kuhl. The door hangers were first handed out at an apartment owners’ expo and then made available through the Litter Free Long Beach Web site. Speaking from first-hand knowledge, Kuhl said the signs are effective.

“I put the door hanger on my door and it works,” he said. “I was amazed by how effective it was.”

It goes to show that a peer-driven approach can sometimes have more impact than an enforcement approach, because despite a city law — Municipal Code 5.46 — dictating how handbills can be distributed, businesses often don’t abide by it.

“It’s a very difficult law to enforce,” Kuhl said. “So peer pressure is more effective. We’re encouraging residents to say ‘I don’t want those handbills or menus.’ ... I’ve done it. I’ll call the restaurant and say ‘I don’t want you leaving your menus on my doorstep and if you do I won’t frequent your establishment. That’s what the residents need to do. People actually calling has a much better impact than anything the city can do.”

According to Municipal Code 5.46, such material cannot be distributed to property that is unoccupied or where a previous day’s handbills have not been removed. The code also details the manner in which the material can be circulated. This form of advertisement can be placed on porches or front door steps — when no receptacle has been provided for the material by the homeowner — only if wrapped, tied, folded in a manner that won’t cause it to blow away.

A new batch of signs currently is being made and should be available in the next few weeks. Kuhl said people could sign up online to receive them. They likely will be available at council offices, as well.

He said the signs will be made of plastic and are designed to fit snuggly around a door or attached firmly to a fence.

“We don’t want to create litter with our signs,” he said.

For more information on this and other litter-reducing efforts, visit www.litterfreelb.org.