Green stamps raise awareness to save resources. Credit USPS.
Walking out to the mailbox often brings a broad smile of delight when we retrieve cards, packages, photographs and news from family and friends. Tossing the undesirable direct advertising into the recycle bin, we’ll step inside and sit with a happy letter from afar or view images of Sarah’s wedding, Mike’s new baby or Aunt Dorothy’s hot air balloon trip over the Croatian countryside.
Does that sound like the 1950s? The ‘70s? Days of the Pony Express?
It’s 2011, and emailing is the method of choice for millions of people to rapidly disseminate information and images to any wired-in point around the globe. But “hard copy” continues to circulate, too. The United States Postal Service (USPS) delivers more than 167 billion pieces of mail six days a week to at least 150 million addresses, along 230,000 routes, logging 4 million miles a day. On foot, on bicycles and in vehicles.
Electric vehicles. Propane and ethanol-powered vehicles. And 10 mules for a route in the Grand Canyon.
3–Wheeled Electric Mail Delivery Vehicle Reduces Fuel Consumption. Credit: USPS
The USPS has teamed up with the National Environmental Education Foundation and the International Post Corporation’s Environmental Measurement and Monitoring System toward reducing their carbon footprint and raising awareness about global environmental concerns.
Now using 9,000 walking routes, 70 bicycle routes, and 44,000 alternative fuel-capable vehicles, the green mail delivery methods avoid the use of nearly 18,000 gallons of petroleum fuel each day.
This adds up to nearly 5.5 million gallons of fuel saved each year. Dean Granholm, vice president, Delivery and Post Office Operations says, “The Postal Service’s fleet of alternative fuel-capable vehicles is the nation’s largest green fleet.” These steps are just the beginning of major efforts toward a 20% carbon footprint reduction by the year 2020.
How You Can Help
US residents and visitors who need stamps to mail printed matter in the country, choose to use the Go Green Forever Stamps. These carry the message to help save resources and support the “greening” of the postal service. Residents abroad can encourage local postal agencies to follow suit and help raise awareness.
Other ways you can participate in reducing consumption of natural resources are:
- Pay your bills using online bill pay services; stop mailing out printed checks.
- Shop with online catalogs and cancel subscriptions for all printed versions.
- Send E-cards to save stamps and paper, and save the printed cards solely for mailing to anyone you know who cannot use or doesn’t own a computer.
- Purchase online subscriptions for magazines and newspapers.
- Save your favorite images on disc to reduce printing and mailing costs.
- Encourage recycling of all printed matter at your home and office, and if you live in one of the many areas yet to offer curbside recycling pickup, contact your local city officials to ask that these be implemented.
- Register with DoNotMail.org to help reduce deforestation. Documented polls show that 80 to 90 percent of the population prefers not to receive paper advertising.
One of the most effective steps you can take is to opt out from all “junk” mail and Direct Mail Advertising. These mailbox fillers add weight to postal deliveries and cost heavily in resources. According to Forest Ethics, “Every year, more than 100 million trees are cut down to make junk mail— the equivalent of clearcutting all of Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months.”
The world’s postal services will continue to deliver appropriate, truly necessary and wanted mail. Go hug a tree, and shout out a big thank you to those mail service people walking and peddling through the neighborhood.
