USPS Spreads the Green … and Mail

Although there were many representatives and speakers in attendance from the U.S. Postal Service at the American Catalog Mailers Association’s recent National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum in Arlington, Va., they all had one common theme to communicate: The USPS is committed to environmental stewardship and sustainability. And the agency provided some numbers to back up those claims.

* Advertising mail (i.e., catalogs, direct mail) represents only 2.4 percent of the nearly 246 million tons of municipal solid waste created annually;

* more than 35 percent of this advertising mail is recycled;

* more than a half billion packages and envelopes provided by the USPS annually are nearly 100 percent recyclable;

* the USPS annually recycles 1 million tons of paper, generating $7.5 million in savings through recycling and waste prevention programs last year;

* with more than 36,000 vehicles, the USPS has the world’s largest fleet of alternative fuel vehicles, which use clean fuels such as ethanol, compressed natural gas, liquid propane gas, electricity and biodiesel;

* the USPS has recycled more than 23,000 tons of computers and parts and resold 63,000 computers to organizations around the country since 2004; and

* by using linerless labels on stamp coils, the USPS has eliminated close to 700 tons of scrap paper.