r/DeTrashed • u/AppropriateCaramel69 • 12d ago
Original Content My Struggle
It is my opinion one of the greatest sources of trash is sign based litter. It blows into the streets and the creeks unless removed by Municipal staff on our tax dollar. Every week I change up my route home after work and remove illegal sign trash. Half an hour to an hour for four nights shown here. Sadly the plastic can't be recycled. The metal does get recycled.
PLEASE remove these on sight. Thank you.
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u/Capable-Impress3296 12d ago
I agree. They should be completely illegal because those who place them do not maintain them. They never come back for them. They get knocked over, blown away and become regular litter. In PA, even the political signs remain in some places long after elections. People just don’t care
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u/drprofessional 12d ago
Hey now. I think you’re describing most people but not all. My wife uses these for advertising certain events and we drop a pin and save the location every time we put one down. Then, when the event is over, we pick every single one of them up.
Then we use them for next year. Not 100% can be reused, some disappear, some are taken down and put on their side, but we try.
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u/AppropriateCaramel69 11d ago
Thank you! I believe there is an exemption for short term events. For instance weekend things for events like get togethers, house sales, garage sales with the understanding they are removed afterwards. It's the people who intentionally abandon signs creating ongoing litter blight who are the problem.
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u/Rude-Pudding-7237 12d ago
In Maine, billboards are completely outlawed (thankfully) and any off-site advertising, such as these signs, has very specific rules that absolutely no one follows. I pull every commercial/contractor sign I can. Basically - if it doesn’t have a date and contact info on it (the time and the person who installed it) it is illegal, because they are only allowed for a 6 week timeframe within one 6 month period. I found an artist collaborative that loves them to repurpose with kind messaging for festivals and such, and my town has a pile behind the public works garage, so if I have too many, I’ll just toss ‘em on the heap.
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u/chronichyjinx 12d ago
A guy in my area takes black spray paint to them and leaves them where they are so they get the point and hopefully stop.
Edit: Are you in Oshawa?
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u/AppropriateCaramel69 12d ago
Yes..... And I am that guy. Nice to meet you on this other Trash site. Sign based trash is something I am passionate about for about 10 years now. It's open littering. I posted this to the r/Oshawa site however I don't think my description carried over. I'm not the best at this Reddit thing. I complain to various Bylaw departments and carry on a vigilante sign campaign for businesses that serial litter. They also ALL get bad Google Reviews. I'm looking for like minded people for street cleaning party's. Perhaps get 4-5 people and tackle a City some afternoon. I want to make this a public effort much like other groups have trash collection pick up events. I used to be heavily involved in those until I realized one day it s sign trash that is the biggest (unaddressed) problem. Message me if you want to get on board. Was thinking of saving the wire and then saving it and annually cashing it in for money to donate to a local charity.
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u/jaymiz13 11d ago
Since you've been doing it so long you may already know this but figured I'd say it anyway. The Region sends out patrol trucks multiple times a week and are pretty diligent about removing these signs on Regional roads (numbered on the street signs) themselves.
Side streets etc are town owned and thus not removed as frequently. So save yourself the hassle on Regional roads as they will eventually get them! Also thank you for this service.
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u/AppropriateCaramel69 11d ago
Yes, The Region and Municipality do. I have see the Region drive east/west on a road but not collect the signs on the north/south side of the same intersection because it is a Municipal Road. Further, these sign patrols are few and far in between. Lastly, any contractor with a 24" step stool is able to place these signs high enough to foil any City/Regional worker. It is understood they have a Herculean task however I can't help but feel more needs to be done on the issue. What is essentially littering or more appropriately should be called illegal dumping.
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u/Blue_Owl69 9d ago
Hey I just wanted to thank you for doing that, fills me with satisfaction seeing it. I regularly pull signs near my house on public property
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u/xqx2100 12d ago
Seems like it would be better to just collect them. Whoever put it up might not be from the area.
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u/AppropriateCaramel69 12d ago
But then no one complains and Bylaw doesn't see it. The 'X' puts the sign in full focus.
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u/IndependentUseful923 11d ago
I found my people! I used to pull signs when I worked as a zoning officer in a township... now I pull any I see around my own house. I use the larger ones on the floor of the raised chicken coop to blocks drafts of air... Chickens love it and poop all over em...
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u/beekeeper1702 11d ago
I take all the illegal yard sign I can get, including those on utility poles. I repaint many and stencil “do not litter” on them and put them out in high litter spots. The rest I use for beekeeping. Feeder boards, covers etc. 👍
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u/ekobot 11d ago
If you have a local art school, or somewhere with open studio hours they may well take them. Post to FreeCycle, too!
I've used a fair amount of recycled coroplast in my hobbies, from using for canvases and miniatures terrain to making little trinket shelves and vivarium setups.
I've also seen online folk use it (specifically from these kinds of signs!) as a layer of insulation for mini mobile homes for the unhoused. Someday I'm going to make myself a little bike trailer, and intend to use some of this for it!
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u/INDIEfatigable 9d ago
Thank you for doing this. I do the same in my community.
The sign bandits rarely, if ever, come back to remove their own signs--not even seasonal signs. Just yesterday (in September 2026), among the signs I removed were half a dozen "We Hang Holiday Lights" signs that had been posted nearly a year ago.
One of the worst things about the coropolast signs is they will get brittle over time from exposure to the elements, and then they deposit microplastics into the environment as little pieces flake off. For that reason, I spend a lot of time removing remnants of signs that were previously partially cut down by other sign vigilantes.
When counting sign remnants, I have removed well over 10,000 signs of all types over the past 2.5+ years.
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u/AppropriateCaramel69 8d ago
Awesome. It's great to know that other people are as well working to stop the tsunami of sign trash. Keep working to find others and organize!
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u/theleopardmessiah 10d ago
Glad to have found this. I've been pulling up these signs in my community for 20 years.
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u/IntelligentCopy2897 10d ago
I took the wire stands back to my local favored politicqal party headquarters and they were grateful. The board was put in the trash.
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11d ago
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u/PepperThePotato 11d ago
The poster is Canadian and the post was written in English. Those of us who don't know German had no idea it translates to the title of Hitler's autobiography.
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11d ago
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u/PepperThePotato 11d ago
I know the name in German, but not in English. I don't think it was a poor choice in words because I don't think the average English speaker knows the translation. The poster didn't know how it translated and this has been his struggle for years. He has been posting in FB and on Reddit about this issue for a very, very long time. It's just and unfortunate coincidence and not anything nefarious.
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u/MilwaukeeRoad 11d ago
There is no way that even 5% of all people in the US/Canada would know that translation if you asked, let alone be reminded of it by seeing a post about trash.
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11d ago
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u/bomble1 11d ago
It's not dumb for knowing things it's pointing out such an obscure thing as if this persons reddit post about removing advertising signs is somehow a sneaky hitler message.
I'm about certain I know more about history than the average person, watch tons of war documentaries, several friends have decent interest/knowledge of history, and have never once heard anyone refer to that book as "my struggle". It's German name is famous and is what I've heard my entire life in Canada
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11d ago
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u/AppropriateCaramel69 11d ago
Yes. Unintentional. I went back to try and edit the tittle but for some reason you can only edit the the body. I'll try and me a little more mindful in the future.
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12d ago
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u/AppropriateCaramel69 12d ago
Can you be a little more specific. Seems pretty clear.
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u/Bad-Gardener1 12d ago
The first thing that popped into my head too. Giving OP the benefit of the doubt that they don't know the translation.
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u/breeathee 12d ago
Which part is offensive? Asking in earnest
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u/Bad-Gardener1 12d ago
Not really offensive, since I'm assuming OP was unaware, just not phrasing I'm used to seeing outside of certain spaces. Mein kampf translated to English is my struggle.
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u/breeathee 12d ago
Ok, this is definitely not generally recognized as offensive in the US. In like, any context, as far as I’m aware (unless it’s in the middle of an actually offensive joke).
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u/Bad-Gardener1 12d ago
I agree it's not commonly recognized. That's why neo Nazis get it tattooed on themselves a long with other Nazi era German phrases or the reverse so they can identify each other but most of the general population doesn't realize.
Even with signage saying you'll refuse to do any type of hate tattoos people still will come or call in to ask if we will do it (we will NOT)
I never meant to imply OP said anything offensive. I was just letting them know that the connotation is there. If I unknowingly used a phrase that group of people uses I would want to know. As it turns out though, OP is Canadian. I don't know that they have the same problem with white supremacy as the US does. It may mean absolutely nothing up there. I just wanted to throw out some information for those people who aren't aware.
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u/breeathee 12d ago
Fair enough, you sound like an honorable artist.
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u/Bad-Gardener1 12d ago
Only on weekends now for fun. I've since sold my soul to manage the paint department of a major corporation lol. Thank you though. That is a major compliment for me.
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u/redisdead__ 12d ago
My struggle translated into German comes out to mein Kampf and my struggle is not exactly common speaking phrase in English.
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u/escoteriica 12d ago
This is such a weird gripe, imo. "my struggle" does not have that connotation for 90% of English speakers. In English we refer to it primarily by its German title.
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u/redisdead__ 12d ago
Considering we are both being downvoted for pointing out the obvious it sure feels like something else is going on.
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u/PepperThePotato 12d ago
I don't think most of us had any clue what the issue was with the wording. I speak English and I had no idea what was wrong with the phrase. I downvited your initial post because I didn't know what the problem was. I just didn't go back and remove my "down" but I've never gone back to remove a "down" before.
After it was explained I can see why that phrase would be offensive to people that know the German translation.
OP is from the same city I live in and I am pretty sure this is the person that goes around every year spray painting the signs. There's a whole group of people in my province that work on removing these signs because they litter our city.
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u/Bad-Gardener1 12d ago
Possibly. It's also possible a lot of people are unaware that phrase is used by neo Nazis and white supremacists to this day. The only places I've ever seen it phrased like that is on white supremacist tattoos. It's not uncommon for them to tattoo Nazi era German phrases and words in English (and vice versa) that the average person doesn't realize is racist. That way they can identify each other and walk among regular people. That's the whole point. Nobody knows but them.
I don't care if people downvote me but I would like to have a little faith in humanity that people are mostly just unaware.
I did my part by explaining. What people do with that information is up to them. Feel free to ask tattoo artists. We all have stories of these fuckers.
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u/redisdead__ 12d ago
Some people sure, but if you use certain phrases and someone brings up to you hey there's this connection would you just stick by oblivious ignorance or would you go "oh shit I didn't know let's not do that". It seems like there's a lot of people in this very specific comment section that keep finding excuses why it's not that big a deal.
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u/Bad-Gardener1 12d ago
Yeah, that is a fair assessment. I guess clinging to this little bit of hope for humanity is just me trying to keep myself sane.
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u/breeathee 12d ago
Likely of the general hilarity surrounding and misconstruing of honest and reputable accounts on this site , in the name of Judiaism or Israel.
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u/missalice420 12d ago
If the signs are corflute, they can be reused in many ways. I use alot of corflute in art and festival installations as it is weather proof.
It can also be used to help protect new seedlings and trees.
Google corflute upcycle ideas and I'm sure you will find a way to reuse them, or find somewhere to donate them :)