Our Recycling Pal Cathy's Report on Recycling by Mail

Hey folks,

I spent a great couple of hours at the DC GreenFest today. For the record, I'm still mad at Ralph Nader, so I did not stop by to say hi. Now that I got that off my chest, one of the great things I learned is that of all things, the US Postal Service is going green! They are currently piloting a program that allows you to send old cell phones, PDAs, Smartphones, MP3s, digital cameras, and ink jet cartridges off to a techno trash center in MI for free. While it's always better to reuse these items, sometimes you can't. There are special plastic pouches that the post office is using to mail these items...and there is no postage necessary. The pouches are currently available at some 11,000 POs nationwide...and they hope to have them in all soon. At the destination, these items are sorted then disposed of properly (buried, I believe) here in the US (vs being shipped off to some developing country).

They have a whole "green" portion of their website now. They're also offering "cradle to cradle certified" packaging. Yours truly will be contacting my forest folk to see how that compares to FSC and will report back. Sadly, they did not have any real tips on reducing junk mail or those annoying flyers that come with no address in our mail every week. You can go to Catalog Choice and sign up to receive only those catalogs you really want to get.