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‘Please no flyers’: Should postal advertising be more strictly controlled in Germany?

Many German apartment buildings have a designated bin for unwanted advertisement pamphlets. An opt-in system may help reduce waste, but some believe it could be damaging for local business.

'Please no flyers': Should postal advertising be more strictly controlled in Germany?
'No advertising' signs are not always observed in Germany. Photo: DPA

“Stop! No advertising”, “Please no flyers” or “Junk mail banned!” – these are just some of the phrases often seen taped to post boxes across Germany. 

Those who don’t want to receive advertising pamphlets have to make that clear by putting a sign on their postbox.

A wasteful system

The non-profit organisation Environmental Action Germany (DUH) wants to redesign the system to ensure that advertising brochures are only delivered to those who actively want them. This could be indicated by a sign saying “advertisements welcome”.

Chairwoman of German Environmental Aid, Barbara Metz, told DPA that an opt-in system would be beneficial to everyone. 

“Those who still want to receive advertising can simply make that known with a sign on their postbox,” said Metz. “This would help reduce the senseless waste produced by unwanted advertisements.”

READ ALSO: Complaints against Germany's postal service soar in the first half of 2020

Postal advertising in Germany “produces mountains of waste and fills entrance halls with litter, as well as being a huge waste of resources and bad for the environment”.

The organisation has launched a petition to pressure the German government, and specifically Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht of the Social Democrat Party, into taking action.

According to their spokeswoman, the Ministry of Justice currently has no plans to introduce such a system. If consumers were asked to actively express their consent, “probably only a small number” of them would do so.

A local lifeline?

While such a system would help reduce waste, it would also “restrict commercial freedom”, she explained. 

This method of advertising is particularly important for local companies. “It is also important to protect freedom of press, as some pamphlets also contain an editorial section.”

Consumers who do not want advertising can already make this clear “without much effort”, she added.

'No advertising' signs are not always observed, however. Consumer advice centers monitor infringements against the current rules and take action against repeat offenders. 

However, free advertising leaflets which also contain an editorial section can be put into post boxes regardless of any signs. 

The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) estimates that Germany’s 41.3 million households receive 500 to 700 grams worth of unsolicited advertising and free newspapers per week, which in turn amounts to 1.1 to 1.5 million tonnes of paper every year. 

This figure does not include the households with 'no advertising' signs. However, and the exact number of these remains unknown.

Balancing act

“Producing and distributing paper flyers damages the environment, and so resources should be used as sparingly as possible.”, said UBA expert Almut Reichart.

Free newspapers are normally made entirely out of waste paper, but even paper recycling has negative effects on the environment. 

She also stressed, however, that these newspapers can contain important information. 

“It is difficult to draw a line between unwanted advertising and information useful to customers and citizens, all while considering the associated right to freedom of speech.”

READ ALSO: Five ways Germany makes you greener (without even noticing) 

A survey carried out in May by the DUH and the Kantar Institute sought to look further into the issue.

According to the study, 78 percent of people aged 14 and over in Germany saw the environmental impact of printed circulars and advertising brochures as “very high” or “rather high”, while 61 percent thought that unsolicited advertising brochures should be banned. 

On the other hand, 69 percent admit to occasionally planning ahead for their weekly shop, and 60 percent of them use advertising brochures to do so.

According to the German Advertising Federation, only 27 percent of post boxes in Germany have a ‘no advertising’ sign.

Mixed opinions

Mailbox advertising is vital not only for the local economy, but also for sport and cultural societies, it says. “It is the most important way of reaching existing and new customers”.

Introducing new restrictions would put local companies at a “substantial disadvantage” compared to online businesses, they argue. 

In addition, the impact that mail advertising has on the environment is consistently overestimated, because most advertisements are printed on recycled paper. An opt-in model would also be tantamount to 'nannying’ the population, they said. 

The association Letzte Werbung (Last Advertisement) sees it differently. The organisation was set up to combat unwanted advertising, and they worked together with the DUH to launch the petition calling for an opt-in system. 

“When people browse the internet, they are given the option to consent to advertising”, said chairman Sebastian Sielmann. Consumers are not given the same option when it comes to printed advertising, which “makes no sense”. 

 

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‘Città 30’: Which Italian cities will bring in new speed limits?

Bologna has faced heavy criticism - including from the Italian government - after introducing a speed limit of 30km/h, but it's not the only city to approve these rules.

'Città 30': Which Italian cities will bring in new speed limits?

Bologna on January 17th became Italy’s first major city to introduce a speed limit of 30km/h on 70 percent of roads in the city centre under its ‘Città 30’ plan, first announced in 2022, and initially set to come into force by June 2023.

The move made Bologna one of a growing number of European cities, including Paris, Madrid, Brussels, and Bilbao, to bring in a 30km/h limit aimed at improving air quality and road safety.

But the change was met last week with a go-slow protest by Bologna’s taxi drivers and, perhaps more surprisingly, criticism from the Italian transport ministry, which financed the measure.

Matteo Salvini, who is currently serving as Italy’s transport minister, this week pledged to bring in new nationwide rules dictating speed limits in cities that would reverse Bologna’s new rule.

Salvini’s League party has long criticised Bologna’s ‘Città 30’ plan, claiming it would make life harder for residents as well as people working in the city and would create “more traffic and fines”.

OPINION: Italians and their cars are inseparable – will this ever change?

Bologna’s speed limit has sparked a heated debate across Italy, despite the increasingly widespread adoption of such measures in many other cities in Europe and worldwide in recent years.

While Bologna is the biggest Italian city to bring in the measure, it’s not the first – and many more local authorities, including in Rome, are now looking to follow their example in the next few years.

Some 60 smaller cities and towns in Italy have adopted the measure so far, according to Sky TG24, though there is no complete list.

This compares to around 200 French towns and cities to adopt the rule, while in Spain the same limit has applied to 70 percent of all the country’s roads since since May 2021 under nationwide rules, reports LA7.

The first Italian town to experiment with a 30 km/h speed limit was Cesena, south of Bologna, which introduced it in 1998. Since then, the local authority has found that serious accidents have halved, while the number of non-serious ones has remained unchanged.

Olbia, in Sardinia, also famously introduced the speed limit in 2021.

The city of Parma is planning to bring in the same rules from 2024, while the Tuscan capital of Florence approved five 30km/h zones in the city centre earlier this month.

Turin is set to bring in its first 30km/h limits this year as part of its broader plan to improve transport infrastructure, aimed at reducing smog and increasing livability.

READ ALSO: Why electric cars aren’t more popular in Italy

Meanwhile, the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, has promised to introduce the limit on 70 percent of the capital’s roads by the end of his mandate, which expires in 2026.

In Milan, while the city council has voted in favour of lower speed limits and other traffic limitations on central roads, it’s not clear when these could come into force.

Milan mayor Beppe Sala this week said a 30 km/h limit would be “impossible” to implement in the Lombardy capital.

And it’s notable that almost all of the cities looking at slowing down traffic are in the north or centre-north of Italy.

There has been little interest reported in the measures further south, where statistics have shown there are a higher number of serious road accidents – though the total number of accidents is in fact higher in the north.

According to the World Health Organisation the risk of death to a pedestrian hit by a car driven at 50 km/h is 80 percent. The risk drops to 10 percent at 30 km/h.

The speed limit on roads in Italian towns and cities is generally 50, and on the autostrade (motorways) it’s up to 130.

Many Italian residents are heavily dependent on cars as their primary mode of transport: Italy has the second-highest rate of car ownership in Europe, with 670 vehicles per 1,000 residents, second only to Luxembourg with 682, according to statistics agency Eurostat.

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