When you pick up mail, you may not realize that 48% of USPS mail is "standard" mail, which is euphemism for junk mail - advertising, marketing, sales pitch. FORTY EIGHT PERCENT!!
And we wonder why USPS is struggling!
We came back to our Virginia home after being away for a month and a half to small piles of useful mail, most of it available online.
....and this pile of junk mail that made me want to cry! This disheveled set, full of high-gloss paper and unsolicited magazines, is utterly eco un-friendly.
In 2020, the USPS delivered 64.1B pieces of junk mail. That's more than 194 pieces delivered to every man, woman, and child in this country whether they have an address or not; billions of pieces delivered in the middle of a pandemic when most of us shifted to working, shopping, transacting online.
Is junk mail valuable for USPS' survival? Nope. Even though the number is astoundingly large, the volume does not make up for lost revenue from the lower cost of mailing. First class mail brings in more revenue.
But then, how many times are Neil, Humera, and Josh using first-class mail, how many times are they buying stamps, how many times they are signing up for paper bills? ZERO!
There is no doubt that first class mail in its current form is dying a slow death.
Tarun and I have a few important things that still come in snail mail. With each passing year this number is dwindling and I can see a time in our near future when we may not even want a mailbox at the end of our driveway.
If we have to come back home to high piles of un-recyclable junk mail, we will make the end arrive sooner than later. For sure.