usps regulations for flats
Second is the new First
So, I was at this meeting last night and there were several round table discussions going on. The thing that struck me most was that people with these high tech software solutions were lamenting the fact that they could not get people to understand how they would help their business and that their sales cycles were 2 years or better.
It dawned on me that it might be a better strategy to copy and improve rather than innovate. Think My Space and Facebook, or Ford and Toyota or MP3 players and Ipods. There are many more examples where companies that may not have been first to market took a concept and improved it and made it so much more customer friendly that they blew away the originator. So the real key goes back to the old fashioned concept of customer service. When I think about it, the guys who were talking last night were more focused on how great their software was and how amazing the technology is, but I did not hear much-ok I didn’t hear anything-about how much their customers loved the product.
Liberating the Postal Service
Government bailouts of high profile private corporations have obscured the fact that one of the largest government enterprises, the U.S. Postal Service, is also in dire financial straits. Its requests for immediate relief, however, should be turned into long term, and long overdue, reforms that will strengthen a great national institution for the future.
In essence, what the Postal Service needs is to be free of congressional interventions and allowed to operate as a regulated corporation in a competitive delivery services industry. Ever since 1970, when it was created by Congress to succeed the old Post Office Department, Congress had said that it wants the Service to operate like a business. Yet ever since 1970, whenever attempts are made to respond to that mandate, some old congressional hobby horses ride forth and interfere.
In January, Postmaster General Jack Potter asked Congress to accept the fact that some day we might not need the mail delivered six days a week to every address in the nation. Potter asked for nothing more than flexibility for the future, yet several members of Congress immediately cried “Foul!” and insisted on retaining an outdated law that mandates six-day delivery. He faced the same committee again last week, but change cannot be expected.
Six-day postal delivery was not invented by the Founding Fathers as many today seem to suppose. Until the Civil War, almost all Americans had to come to the post office to collect their mail. Not until the last third of the nineteenth century was postal delivery gradually extended to the main cities. Postal delivery in rural America (where most Americans still lived in 1900) was introduced in the first third of the twentieth century. Even so, as late as 1950, one in six Americans still collected his or her mail from the local post office.
In the late 1970s, the country hit a rough economic patch. Inflation surged, and the federal budget turned red. To save money, Congress decided to renege on its promise to cover the costs of the Postal Service’s unprofitable services. Worried that this might force the a cutback on Saturday delivery, Congress “fixed” the problem by ordering the Postal Service to maintain six-day service without the public funds through a temporary one-year order added to the annual funding bill. Presto, something for nothing!
The problem is that almost thirty years later, the same temporary fix is still attached to the postal appropriations bill. After the first couple of years, Congress did not even bother to update it. The provision still requires that the Postal Service maintain delivery frequency at 1983 levels even though no one in Congress, and no one in the Postal Service, can say what the service levels in 1983 were. Furthermore, about 75% of those commercial mailers and households surveyed in a George Mason University study done for the Postal Regulatory Commission said they would be happy with five day delivery. The Postmaster General had a good understanding of what the public wanted.
The annual postal appropriations “rider” has become a bad habit. It is time to get rid of the rider and give the Postal Service freedom to adjust delivery frequencies to the actual levels of mail and the real needs of addressees. Not unlimited freedom, but flexibility subject to oversight by the independent Postal Regulatory Commission and, of course, ultimately by Congress.
Yet this is only illustrates one facet of a much larger problem: how to equip the Postal Service to meet the needs of the twenty-first century.
The base problem confronting the contemporary Postal Service is that the environment in which it operates has changed drastically. It is less and less a conduit for exchanging first class letters and more and more a broadcast medium, primarily for the distribution of advertisements, periodicals, and parcels. None of these classes of mail is covered by the monopoly on first class mail, a monopoly adopted by Congress in 1872! Today, the reasons for establishing the Postal Service as a government monopoly are fast disappearing. First class mail is shrinking rapidly as telephone and Internet have replaced most hard copy correspondence. Advertisements now comprise most of the mail.
We need to think seriously about transforming the Service from a government monopoly into a regulated, competitive enterprise. There are numerous examples from abroad on how the transition might be made. The European Union has ordered the end of virtually all national postal monopolies by the end of the year 2010). And in this country, there ample precedents and lessons to be learned from regulatory reform in other industries.
A restructured postal system would give the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent and impartial body of experts, the authority to define the truly public interests which must be protected. For example, the Commission might require delivery of individual first class letters to, say, 98 percent of all addresses in the U.S. within three business days at a maximum rate of 50 cents for the next five years. It would be up to the Postal Service to figure out how to do that. If the Postal Service cannot do the job at a profit, the Commission might contract with a private carrier to provide the necessary service. Meanwhile, the Postal Service might find it commercially sensible to reduce rates for some types of letters — for example, local utility bills. If it can offer lower rates in some places or to some mailers (without unfair price discrimination), it should do so. And if mailers want enhanced service, they should be able to get it and be willing to pay for it. We need to get away from the idea that the same level of service should be provided to all mailers everywhere. The true public interest lies in a guarantee of a reliable nationwide delivery service at an affordable maximum price.
Public policy towards the Postal Service has grown unwise by not changing with changing times. We now have a system in which Congress feels obliged to oversee the execution of a public monopoly granted in the nineteenth century, while the Postal Service is struggling to adapt to life in the twenty-first century. This mismatch between policy and reality endangers the future of the Postal Service. It is time to allow the Postal Service to manage itself subject to clearly stated and impartially implemented rules that protect — and where necessary pay for — the essential minimum level of nationwide postal services required by the people.
A. Lee Fritschler, Professor, School of Public Policy, George Mason University, was Chairman of the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission. With colleagues James I. Campbell Jr., Robert H. Cohen, and Christine Pommerening, Professor Fritschler recently completed a study on the development and future of universal postal service for the Commission.
Young Professionals are Nutty for Nutter!
By: Roseanne Cappacio
I had the opportunity last week to attend a networking event as part of the Young Professionals Network (YPN), sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, at St. Joseph’s University. It was a great opportunity to get to know my fellow peers and also get a more in-depth look at the state of the city from the Mayor himself.
Mayor Nutter spoke to a room of over 150 young professionals as well as addressing any questions we brought to the table. He explained in more detail his plans to raise the property tax for the next two years: up 19% from this year’s rate in 2010 and then just 14% in 2011 from the 2009 rate. Then it should return to the 2009 rate in 2012. He assured us that this has been written as part of the legislature that the 2009 rate will return! Only time will tell. He did also mention that if you are a first time home buyer and buy new construction you have a 10 year tax exemption and the rate increases will not affect you! He encouraged first time home buyers to buy away!
He answered an array of questions from, “What is your opinion on how the Parking Wars TV show depicts the city of Philadelphia?†to “Why should we send our children to Philadelphia Public Schools?†He even took suggestions from the group on how we can keep our young professionals living and working in the city most of us call home.
The Mayor was very personable and even stuck around afterward to speak with anyone who had additional questions for him. I found the event very informative and also realized that we as young professionals do have a voice and the Mayor wants to hear it! So if you have an issue you feel strongly about or just want to express your opinions on a topic feel free to write the Mayor or you can even post your comments here for discussion.
It’s important for all of us to be heard so don’t be afraid to speak up as you never who might be listening!
Finnish postal union to go ahead with stoppage
So check this out, at least I never recall the USPS stopping delivery on mail. See it can always get worse!
The Finnish Post and Logistics Workers´ Union (Pau) is to stage a six-hour stoppage on Wednesday, leading to delays in postal services for the rest of the week.
The union maintains that there is ambivalence about whether permanent unemployment pension could be treated as a legitimate outcome in cooperation procedure talks in government-owned companies like Itella, formerly known as Finland Post.
Jyri Häkämies (cons), the minister in charge of ownership policy, had previously approved permanent unemployment pension as a legitimate option.
Itella said last week it wanted to cut some 390 jobs.
The Nation Gets Serious About Coupons
People still love the coupons, try using them in your next direct mail package
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
A team of very nonscientific researchers has finally discovered one thing that can distract the nation from Britney Spears: coupons.
According to Google, searches for coupons have outstripped those for the pop train wreck since 2008.
In addition, Coupons.com reported that Washington area residents printed $2.85 million worth of coupons last month. The top items were ready-to-eat cereal, baby products and baking ingredients.
“A lot of my readers are now out of work,” said Ashley Nuzzo, who runs the blog Frugal Coupon Living. “A lot of my readers are trying to make it from day to day.”
She started “couponing” a year ago when she decided to stay at home with her new baby and the family had to live off her husband’s salary. The blog began as a resource for her friends and family, who demanded to know how she found her phenomenal deals: Nuzzo estimates that she saves about $1,000 a month on groceries and toiletries.
Traffic to her site exploded as the economy tanked. Then Dr. Phil asked her on his show in February, and she’s been swamped ever since. Here are some of her secrets:
– Don’t spend it right away. Wait for a sale and then double down by using your coupon, as well. For example, Nuzzo found a $4 coupon recently for a razor that normally costs $9.99. She waited — and when the razor went on sale for $4.99, she got it for 99 cents.
– Stay organized. Ashley enters all of her receipts into Excel and tracks her monthly expenditures, as well as her savings. She and her husband stay away from credit and debit cards. Ashley said cash keeps her accountable and is harder to hand over to a salesperson.
– Set a bar. As a rule of thumb, Ashley refuses to buy anything unless it is discounted by at least 70 percent or costs less than $1.
– Ylan Q. Mui
Survey: CMOs Not Happy With Digital
April 18, 2009
By Todd Wasserman
CMOs see digital as the medium of choice in this economy, but aren’t getting what they want out of it, according to a new survey from Heidrick & Struggles.
In December, the Atlanta recruiting firm polled 111 senior marketing executives at firms with $1 billion or more in annual revenues about their digital strategies. The impetus, said Lynne Seid, partner in the firm’s global consumer practice, were comments from H&S clients expressing frustration over the fact that so much information exists online about consumers—like their search and social media behavior—and yet marketers felt they were accessing it poorly.
Information on existing customers is especially valuable since in the current down economy, many are focusing on retaining such customers, and cross-selling and up-selling to them, in addition to trying to win over new customers.
Respondents to the survey found their current ability to access ROI and metrics on their digital marketing lacking and rated their companies behind the curve. Many said they would have to look outside the company for help, whether that means hiring new employees or relying on ad agencies—though the marketers said they weren’t happy with their current agencies either.
Time after time in the survey, marketers expressed an awareness of digital’s potential along with a recognition that they weren’t close to tapping it.
For instance, one of the selling points of digital media is its ability to let marketers respond quickly to new opportunities, but only 16 percent of respondents rated themselves “very satisfied†with their ability to do so. Fifty-one percent said they were “somewhat satisfied.â€
On a more granular level, the respondents rated marketing ROI, Web behavioral analyses and CRM as the most important parts of their digital marketing mix. Not many marketers thought that they were good at those functions at this point. Only 18 percent said they were “very satisfied†with their ROI analysis, only 13 percent said the same of their CRM program and 19 percent were happy with their search engine optimization.
There was also some debate over who has responsibility for analytics like Web traffic and usage reports. Most marketing departments are currently handling those functions, but they would like to fob it off on IT. Though search marketing also scored high, pulling up the rear on that list were blogs, social networking tools and mobile advertising.
On the bright side, most respondents thought they had Webinars down pat and they were fairly confident in their ability to execute online surveys and contests. On the other hand, most rated their ability to pull off mobile ads and video ads fairly low.
For what ever reason, marketers think their companies are behind the curve on digital marketing, but they don’t see themselves that way. “That’s called ‘irony,’†Seid said. Their agency partners are another story. Fifty-five percent disagree with the statement: “We trust our ad agency partner to provide us with the digital marketing expertise that we need.â€
Seid said the big takeaway from the survey is that there’s still enormous room for improvement for most companies’ digital marketing strategies.
“What I’m hearing anecdotally is there are now sometimes half a dozen digital agencies and suppliers specializing in social media and search,†Seid said. “We don’t have anyone managing, integrating and demanding best practices in those areas.†Seid envisions a “digital CMO†taking responsibility for managing those disciplines. Said Seid: “That will be the CMO of the future.â€
Old Navy, Chrysler, Palm among Top 12 Brands Likely to Disappear
Goodbye old friend
From Marketing Charts, April 20, 2009
As the recession deepens, economic forces continue to drive consolidation in the retail industry, debt comes due and increasingly discerning consumers buckle down on discretionary spending, an analysis by 24/7 Wall Street predicts that a number of well-known brands are likely to disappear before the end of 2010.
To determine which brands are most likely at risk, 24/7 Wall Street examined 100 large brands it believes are in trouble and, for each, looked at public financial records, sales information, analyses from industry experts, the competitive landscape in each’s industry and the likelihood that a brand could be sold off in the case of parent-company financial trouble.
The analysis points to the most serious peril for the following 12 brands which, 24/7 Wall Street says are most likely to disappear by the end of 2010:
1. Budget rental cars: Though Budget’s parent company currently says it will continue to operate both the Avis and Budget brands, increasing debt problems, a weakening travel industry and intensifying competition will nonetheless cause the demise of the Budget brand, 24/7 Wall Street predicts.
2. Borders books: Declining sales, heavy losses and pressure from competitors Barnes & Noble and Amazon – especially from new e-book readers – may prove too much for the brand when large amounts of debt come due in April 2010.
3. Crocs footwear: The decline in stock price from $72 per share in late 2007 to $2 today, ongoing financing issues, consumer belt-tightening and the end of a fad, leads to to 24/7 Wall Street’s declaration that “Crocs won’t make it through the year.â€
4. Saturn vehicles: As General Motors faces bankruptcy, 24/7 Wall Street said it will almost certainly shutter the brand, whose sales dropped 59% in the first quarter of 2009.
5. Esquire Magazine : While the Esquire brand is plagued with ad revenue declines and intense competition in the crowded men’s-magazine market, parent company Hearst faces problems on both the newspaper and magazine fronts and will not hesitate to close down underperforming brands such as this one to bolster its overall position.
6. Old Navy apparel: 24/7 Wall Street said that parent company Gap – which currently markets the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic brands – is “a three-brand company living in a two-brand body†and cannot continue to sustain all three in the midst of steep, across-the-board sales declines. Old Navy, which is the weakest brand, will most likely not survive.
7. Architectural Digest Magazine: Amidst drastic cutbacks in high-end home sales and expensive redecorating, the once-healthy publication has lost 47% of its ad pages this year. Faced with other financial problems in its newspaper and magazine businesses, parent company Conde Nast will not be able to sustain the brand, according to 24/7 Wall Street.
8. Chrysler brand cars: Facing similar problems to GM as it teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, Chrylser LLC will not be able to support product design, manufacturing and marketing for a brand with many less sales that Dodge or Jeep as it gears up for restructuring.
9. Eddie Bauer: Faced with declining sales, a stock price under $1, major debt problems and a CCC- rating, analysts say its lack of differentiation in the marketplace could prove the last straw. 24/7 Wall Street said it could be out of business by mid 2009.
10. Palm: A brand that 24/7 Wall Street says has been “at death’s door for some time,†faces life-threatening competition from RIM and Apple, and can only survive in the unlikely event that it can expand the smartphone market by increasing demand for its “Pre.†Dismal financial results and association with Sprint, the already-#3 US wireless carrier, will spell complete disaster.
11. AIG: The once-venerable insurance giant’s highly publicized financial problems, involvement in the financial crisis and subsequent bailout and indebtedness to the federal government, make it the “one large brand in America which almost everyone would like to see disappear,†according to 24/7 Wall Street. Because many of the company’s operating units do not bear the AIG name, they will continue to do business as they distance themselves from the “toxic†AIG parent brand, which eventually will go away.
12. United Air Lines: As the travel industry faces unprecedented overcapacity in light of the recession, two of the large US carriers will soon need to merge to avoid bankruptcy. While it is not clear yet how such a consolidation will shake out, the stocks of UAL, American and US Air have plummeted. 24/7 Wall Street believes that United – the weakest of the carriers, soon faces a “merger,†which will most likely mean the end of the line for the brand.
Handle with carelessness
According to the Slippery Brick, “Netflix Blu-ray movies are arriving cracked and unplayable. That’s what seems to be happening with a small group of subscribers who are claiming their discs are arriving with small cracks on the outside edges. They say it’s happening repeatedly. No one is sure what is causing it since the Discs have an extra coating to prevent scratches on Blu-ray. It could be the automated mail processing machines, manufacturing defects or maybe postal carriers are playing Frisbee. The Mars Box blog experienced this issue back in ‘07, but over the last few months reports are picking up again. It’s too bad the extra costs that customers are paying can’t go toward tougher packaging, but Netflix told Wired the problem is “infinitesimally small†and changing shipping wouldn’t be cost effective.”
Why Every Major Green Group Uses Mail
My kids were recently assigned a project in school about going green. The kids will learn about all different types of pollutants and what they can do to prevent waste and promote a greener planet. Pretty neat project right, I thought so until I started to hear more details. I wish that all the facts surrounding subjects would be presented. The supposition that junk mail or direct mail is a contributor to waste and the loss of forest is quite simply a fallacy. Of course direct mail contributes to waste-about 2%-which goes to landfills and unlike water bottles or diapers does breakdown. And as far as destroying our forests, that is simply not the case. When it comes to forest lands, says The New York Times, “the acreage is essentially the same as it was a century ago, and there is over 30 percent more wood volume per acre than in 1952.” (See: Family Matters, Generational Shifts Loom for Big Tracks of American Woods, June 14, 2007). The following article from the Association for Postal Commerce provides additional insight.
Every major environmental and consumer organization uses the mailstream to raise money, gain members, promote causes and distribute information. Larger groups send out tens of millions of items annually.
When asked if Greenpeace was contributing to the nation’s environmental problems because the group uses direct mail, Peter Bahouth, a former Greenpeace executive director, once told ABC News that “accusing environmental groups of paper pollution is a bit like saying that we need to get the ambulances off the street because they’re loud.”
You can check for yourself by looking at the IRS Form 990 which most non-profit organizations are required to make available to the public. More than 1.5 million non-profit groups are listed at GuideStar.org, and many post their Form 990s for public review.
Why do major ecology groups use the mails? Just take a look at mail and the waste stream.
How much garbage is produced each year?
According to the latest-available figures from the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States produces 13 billion tons of nonhazardous solid waste each year. The EPA calls this material Subtitle D waste. (See: RCRA: Reducing Risk From Waste, EPA, EPA530-K-97-004, September 1997, page 5.)
Thirteen billion tons in the mid-1990s! That seems impossible. Is there an environmental organization with similar numbers?
Yes. As an example, Greenpeace has research showing that we produced 11.3 billion tons of Subtitle D waste in the 1980s.
Also, the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote in 1997 that “the United States produces between 12 and 14 billion tons of waste annually. This includes mining waste, oil and gas waste, agricultural waste, hazardous waste, food-processing residues, demolition debris, incinerator ash, and medical waste, in addition to municipal waste. The management of most of this waste is not regulated by U.S. federal law — it is exempt — and of the total, municipal waste accounts for only about 210 million tons.” (See: Too Good To Throw Away: Recycling’s Proven Record, Chapter 2)
The problem, of course, is that more recent Subtitle D figures are needed to better understand waste issues, information which the EPA has not made available to the public.
What is municipal solid waste?
In general terms, “municipal solid waste” or “MSW” can be seen as a limited number of items which are part of the overall waste stream. As the EPA explains: “MSW — otherwise known as trash or garbage — consists of everyday items such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, newspapers, appliances, and batteries.” (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 4)
Does MSW equal all the stuff that goes into local landfills?
No. “Some people assume that ‘municipal solid waste’ must include everything that is landfilled in Subtitle D landfills,” says the EPA, but this is NOT correct. (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 25)
“It has been common practice,” says the EPA, “to landfill wastes such as municipal sludges, nonhazardous industrial wastes, residue from automobile salvage operations, and construction and demolition debris along with MSW.” (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 25)
But wait a minute. Doesn’t the EPA say that the number of landfills has declined substantially during the past decade?
The EPA says two things: “The number of landfills in the United States is steadily decreasing — from 8,000 in 1988 to 1,654 in 2005. The capacity, however, has remained relatively constant. New landfills are much larger than in the past.” (See: Basic Facts: Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), EPA, June 1, 2007)
In other words, older, smaller and less ecology-secure landfills are being replaced with a small number of larger sites which can benefit from new technologies and better management.
However, the idea that landfill capacity is “relatively constant” is simply wrong. The amount of available landfill capacity is actually growing. As The New York Times has reported:
“It became clear in the early 1990′s that there was a glut of disposal space, not the widely believed shortage that had drawn headlines in the 1980′s.
“Although many town dumps had closed, they were replaced by fewer, but huge, regional ones. That sent dumping prices plunging in many areas in the early 1990′s and led to a long slump in the waste industry.
“Since then the industry and its followers have been relying on time — about 330 million tons of trash went into landfills in the United States last year alone, according to Solid Waste Digest, a trade publication — to fill up some of those holes, erase the glut and send disposal prices skyward again. Instead, dump capacity has kept growing, and rapidly, even as only a few new dumps were built.” (See: Rumors of a Shortage of Dump Space Were Greatly Exaggerated, August 12, 2005)
Where can I get more information regarding the landfill glut?
Press here to see our complete report.
How much MSW is there?
While the overall waste stream consists of some 13 billion tons of nonhazardous materials, MSW is just a small fraction of that amount. In 2005 we generated 245.7 million tons of MSW — 1.89 percent of the non-hazardous waste stream. (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 1)
Do 245.7 million tons of MSW go into landfills?
No. MSW in 2005 included 245.7 million tons of material before recycling, composting and energy recovery. The amount left to landfill was 133.3 million tons. (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 2)
Aren’t we landfilling more MSW than ever?
No. MSW generation is down. Recycling and composting are both up. The result is that MSW landfill use has declined.
For instance, the EPA reports that we landfilled 133.3 million tons of material in 2005 — that’s down from 134.4 million tons in 1980 — a time when the population was substantially smaller. (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 2)
How long will it take to pack our landfills with MSW?
More than MSW goes into landfills, so the issue involves a wider array of waste than MSW by itself. No less important, we are now adding landfill capacity faster than we are using it.
The New York Times has reported that between 2001 and 2005 the nation’s three largest trash collectors — Waste Management, Allied Waste Industries and Republic Services — “buried 882 million tons of waste. But the remaining permitted capacity of their combined 410 dumps did not shrink. It expanded over those four years by more than one billion tons. The three companies now expect expansions of another 1.8 billion tons. At that level, their combined capacity could handle the nation’s trash sent to dumps for about 26 years.” (See: Rumors of a Shortage of Dump Space Were Greatly Exaggerated, August 12, 2005)
Not only are the three largest private companies increasing landfill capacity, the same is also true for other private and public facilities. This is happening because we are landfilling less and also because landfill technology is improving — we can get 30 percent more stuff into a given amount of landfill space than in the past, according to the Times. Equally important in the case of paper-based materials, scrap that used to be landfilled is now being exported to China.
Will we soon run out of landfill capacity?
No. In their 2005 annual reports, the three major collection and disposal companies told the Securities and Exchange Commission that they have enough landfill capacity today to last for decades — without further expansion.
We will develop new landfill sites using the latest and best environmental techniques — certainly as good as the technologies we use today and no doubt better. However, efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle should continue not only because they limit landfill needs, but because such practices are inherently good for the environment and for us all.
If annual Subtitle D waste totals 13 billion tons or more, why have we not run out of landfill space already?
Because much of the “waste stream” is nonhazardous industrial and production water, mining debris and agricultural waste that is left in place and not landfilled.
Is there any source which shows billions of tons of Subtitle D waste broken into categories by weight?
Yes. An official 1988 EPA study entitled, “Report to Congress: Solid Waste Disposal in the United States,” (EPA/530-SW-88-011) details Subtitle D categories. On page 11, Volume 1, is a table showing more than 11,387 billion tons of waste, including 158 million tons of MSW. In 1988, of course, we had a population of 244,498,982, while today our population has increased by more than 55 million people.
How much MSW is in the form of paper products?
Paper and paperboard products amounted to 84 million tons in 2005. However, paper-based products have traditionally had high recovery levels. While the general recovery rate for MSW is 32.1 percent, the recovery rate for paper-based products is 50 percent — meaning 42 million tons were diverted from America’s landfills. (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 7)
What’s the biggest paper-based product found in the waste stream?
Paper-based products are divided into two groups by the EPA: non-durable goods (44.91 million tons) and containers and packaging (39.03 million tons). (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 37)
Among non-durable goods, newspapers are the largest category at 12.05 million tons. For containers and packaging, the largest category is corrugated boxes at 30.93 million tons. (See: Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 37)
How much advertising mail is included within MSW?
Advertising mail totals 5.83 million tons before recycling. However, 2.09 million tons is recycled, a recovery rate of 35.8%. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2005, EPA, page 37)
So how much of the waste stream is advertising mail?
Using EPA data, as a Nation we have 13 billion tons of Subtitle D waste. We also have — before recovery — 5.83 million tons of advertising mail. In the worst case, advertising mail thus represents 0.000448 of the waste stream — about 4/10,000ths. After recycling, of course, the percentage is even lower.
Waterloo mailman accused of not delivering bulk business mail, political flyers
A letter carrier who allegedly told inspectors that he didn’t like to deliver bulk business mail and fliers from politicians faces a federal charge that he ditched mail since 2000.
Glen J. Helmer of Waterloo, Seneca County, a rural carrier associate for the U.S. Postal Service, was arrested Thursday on a charge of stealing and embezzling mail on his route outside Seneca Falls. Helmer allegedly told a special agent for the Postal Service that he took business mail home and stuffed it into his recycling bin up to 120 times from 2000 to 2008.
Helmer, who used his own car on his route, said he was “trying to save money on gas and brakes.”
When the inspector searched Helmer’s car and found 116 undelivered political fliers from state Assemblyman Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, Helmer allegedly said: “I don’t like politicians.”
Amazing isn’t it? What the heck are these people thinking!!!
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