A Castle Rock, Colorado man has been “accused of violating postal regulations for reusing a United States Postal Service priority mail cardboard box” to send items in. Yes… accused of violating regulations by recycling.
Gary Adler runs the non-profit organization; Pro-Players Association and ships sports memorabilia around the country. To save money (it is a non-profit after all) he does his best to reuse boxes; post boxes, grocery store boxes, and so on. Many times he even gets the boxes from the trash cans at the Post Office.
The post office charges people special rates when they use the priority or express mail boxes, even if it is not the first time they are being used. They require that specifically marked boxes be used only for that purpose (not that they are any more costly to produce than normal boxes). It is apparently illegal to cover, remove, or hide the markings on the box and send it via regular mail or parcel post - even if you pay that rate. Basically, the regulation makes it so that if you send a box regular rate in a box intended for something else-when it was no more costly to produce-you are suddenly a criminal. The regulation makes no sense. Adler and his organization have always reused boxes. They have covered up markings or simply turned the boxes inside out, recycling the boxes and paying normal shipping charges. Its not only environmental, todays buzz word but also economical - also a buzz word today.
According to USPS however, this is illegal. According to Postal Service representative, Nicole Reiter:
Our priority mail and express mail boxes are bottom line supposed to be used for that service. That is what they are intended to be used for.
And on the first go around they are used for that purpose. Alder gets his boxes from the trash. Therefore the boxes were simply going to sit, be unused and the postal service would loose money on potentially reusable boxes. Alder’s recycling is a service to the Postal Service. They can collect the base postal rate from him and other like him, or the boxes can go to the dump and the USPS collects nothing.
Adler states;
I think it is stupid, tentatively this box was on its way to the dumpster at the post office. Here the post office is saying you can’t use our boxes for recycling, go find something else.
Adler’s boxes were all refused by the post office. He says he will no longer use the Postal Service - sadly his taxes will continue to subsidize the US Postal Lack-of-service; and that is beyond his individual control. Perhaps thats an area to rethink. With companies like UPS, FedEx and so on willing to gladly take his recycled boxes and at a cost comparable to USPS with far greater service, accountability and trust that your packages will actually arrive at their intended location on time, maybe a subsidized government organization for postal shipping is no longer needed, not at the expense of tax dollars anyway. There is a market in mail and shipping. Let the market drive the process; pull the government out of the picture.
Meanwhile, back at the Post Office, Reiter states that:
These boxes are a cost to the Postal Service and they supply them for free to customers who pay for priority or express mail. She said they cannot provide them for free and keep postal rates low for everyone if a customer does not pay the proper rate.
Lets recap; the boxes were already paid for, perhaps many times. They were recycled and pulled from the trash! The boxes went from being a loss to the USPS to actually being used towards a gain. The USPS provides bad service and increasing rates - yet they are still subsidized by our tax dollars. They receive postage from us and tax dollars from us - and their service and operation is still deplorable. However, companies like FedEx, UPS, DHL and the like all operate with greater service at comparable prices. They do not get a government hand out via tax dollars and yet they are all thriving, profitable, efficient, and excellent businesses. Perhaps the postal service needs to rethink its ‘Service’ title. Perhaps it’s time the market took over and the government steeped away.
Least of all… I just hope the USPS doesn’t go ‘postal’ over this whole ordeal!
See the Story on ABC 7, The Denver Channel here.
Yes, USPS has gone postal.
Keep on recycling!