US Post Office Makes Recycling Mail Easy

 

The U.S. Postal Service has now made it easier to recycle mail within it’s’ lobby’s by launching their Read, Respond, Recycle program, a convenient, environmentally responsible alternative to bringing home or discarding their post office box mail.

This new post office box lobby recycling program is expanding to 1,844 new sites, bringing the total of participating post offices to more than 5,900. The program builds on the success of similar programs that have been ongoing in the northeast part of the United States for more than 10 years.

Lobby recycling helps divert paper waste from landfills, reducing the amount of virgin fiber from trees needed to produce more paper and eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from solid waste disposal.

Recycling bins are placed in post office lobbies, are locked with a key and the opening is slim – about the width of a news magazine. Customers are encouraged to remove and open their mail (read), take whatever action is necessary (respond) and simply place the rest of their mail into the bin (recycle).

In 2008, more than $12 million in revenue was generated by selling recyclables as raw materials, diverting tons of wastepaper, cardboard, cans, plastics and other materials from landfills.

A complete list of participating post offices can be found at Earth911.com, using the word “mail” in the search engine. The list is sorted by ZIP Code.

More information on green initiatives and consumer products, visit usps.com/green.