Residents of Charlotte, North Carolina, took to Reddit to voice their displeasure with the number of advertisements in their community. In recent months, they've seen many ads attached to utility poles.
Posting in the r/Charlotte subreddit, one resident shared a photo of "utility pole eyesore advertising." One ad touted "seamless gutters" that they'd thrown in their trash.
The original poster mused about what to do with the phone number in the ad in the caption.
"Signing up for timeshare quotes, health insurance marketplace… so what else can we opt in for signs like these all over the utility poles in CLT," they said.
If you live in an urban area of any kind, odds are good you've seen this kind of advertising. It's plastered on utility poles or on yard signs on the side of the road. It advertises everything from buying your "ugly home" to gutters to offering to buy diabetic or other medical supplies.
The plastic signage is far cheaper than buying proper ad space on billboards, in newspapers, or even online. That means the company needs a far lower hit rate to turn a profit.
However, these kinds of ads are illegal, and the services they're touting are often scams. They're designed to bilk you out of hard-earned money while delivering an inferior product, if they deliver a product at all.
But the impact of these signs goes beyond simply hurting your wallet; they can impact the environment as well. The vast majority of the yard and utility pole ads you see are made out of cheap, low-grade plastic.
While this plastic still doesn't biodegrade, it does break down incredibly quickly into microplastics. These tiny fragments of plastic have become endemic to our modern society.
The bits of plastic can enter the soil, where they can hinder plant growth. We've found them in virtually every ecosystem that exists on Earth. While their medical impact is still being studied, they've been linked to liver fibrosis and other health issues.
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Absolutely 👍 Commenters shared the poster's disdain.
"I despise the illegal signage," one said.
"Im using the cash from my gutter business to buy diabetic testing strips, thanks for ruining my hustle," another joked.
"Very lazy and largely ineffective management tactic," said a third.
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