US Post offices to encourage public recycling

A Colorado congressman is drafting legislation that would require post offices across the country to encourage the public to recycle unwanted mail by allowing local organizations to place recycling containers in post office lobbies.

"Placing recycling containers at these facilities would not only provide a convenience to postal patrons, it would also encourage the recycling of tons of unwanted mail and keep these materials from filling up local landfill space," said Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo.

Udall is preparing the legislation because of controversy in his state after a regional postal operations manager ordered employees of the Summit County post offices to remove recycling bins.

Carly Wier, executive director of Summit Recycling Project, the nonprofit group that organized the recycling program, said they received a variety of explanations. Among them was a concern that the recycling bins could upset advertisers, who are responsible for most of the mail the post office delivers.

"The reasons cited for having to remove the bins started with giving the wrong image to the direct marketing people, then they went all the way to the unsightliness of the blue recycling bins and how they match the lobbies," Wier said. Postal officials also said the bins could violate Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, she said. "So, we were a little bit hazy on the reason for removing the bins."

The U.S. Postal Service confirmed there was concern about the impact recycling bins in post offices could have on advertising and direct marketing, which make up about 86 percent of the mail by volume.

"Obviously, those people who are mailing are some of our largest customers," Postal Service spokeswoman Kristin Krathwohl said.

"There is the hope that if people take the mail home that they will take more time to read it rather than disposing of it one way or the other at the post office," she said.

However, other concerns included overflowing recycling bins and the risk of identity theft if criminals fished through the discarded mail for credit card application forms or other mail containing sensitive information, she said. That issue eventually was addressed when Summit Recycling agreed to add slotted tops on the recycling bins to discourage anyone from trying to retrieve discarded mail.

Udall said his office received scores of e-mails, faxes and phone calls from residents upset that the bins had been removed from the post offices.

The United States Postal Service regional director for Colorado and Wyoming reversed the recycling bin ban. But the Postal Service has restricted the number of bins allowed at post offices and put in place other policies that some citizens and government officials said discourage the recycling of unwanted mail, Udall said.

Udall's proposal would require the Postal Service allow recycling bins in their offices and that the agency work with citizens in creating policies that reflect a local community's needs.

"When local recycling providers can perform this service, it doesn't pose a cost, maintenance or custodial burden to the post office," Udall said.

Putting recycling containers in post office lobbies would also help the Postal Service live up to its own recycling policies adopted in 1997 that are designed to encourage recycling throughout the agency, he said.

"I think this is a great step to ensure this doesn't happen in other communities," Wier said.

The Postal Service supports recycling efforts but has some concerns about Udall's proposal, Krathwohl said. She has not seen the proposed language, but wants to be certain there are provisions for small rural post offices that may not have any room for recycling bins.

"In some cases, rural post offices are simply a trailer where people come to pick up their mail," she said.

Krathwohl also said that mailed advertisements constitute only about 2 percent of the total municipal solid waste stream.

Last year the Postal Service recycled about 1 million tons of wastepaper, cardboard, plastics, cans and other materials, she said.

Krathwohl did not know how many of the nation's 38,000 post offices have recycling bins available for customers.