Royal Mail uses 871m rubber bands
The Royal Mail is using more than 871m rubber bands a year in the UK, it has emerged, enough to stretch nine times round the world, report The Daily Telegraph.
The Royal Mail is using more than 871m rubber bands a year in the UK, it has emerged, enough to stretch nine times round the world, report The Daily Telegraph.
The article continues:
The figure could soon break the billion mark with the number of bands being used rising from 753m in 2005/06 to the latest figure of 871,695,000 in 2007/08.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request, Royal Mail said it uses so many every year because they are “very useful when it comes to sorting and delivering the mail”.
“We remind our people about the benefits of reusing bands and also ask them not to discard them after use,” it said.
“Unfortunately, given the quantity that we use, it is inevitable that some rubber bands will be dropped by mistake.
“The vast majority of our people are hard working and conscientious but, as with any labour intensive organisation, errors will occasionally happen.”
Royal Mail added that its rubber bands were “more biodegradable” that ordinary brown ones.
Dickie Felton, of Keep Britain Tidy, has estimated that 6% of streets in the UK have the red rubber bands on them at any one time and he collected 13,000 to send back to Royal Mail to protest against the level of littering.
