U.S. Postal Service announces free recycling pilot program

In a Mar. 17, 2008 press release, the U.S. Postal Service announced a free, recycle-by-mail "Mail Back" pilot program. In 10 select areas of the country, you can use free envelopes to mail back inkjet cartridges, PDAs, Blackberries, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players without having to pay for postage.

Currently there are 1,500 Post Offices participating in the pilot program in Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, California and the District of Columbia, primarily in these cities and surrounding areas:

Washington, DC
Baltimore, MD
Chicago, IL
Los Angeles, CA
San Diego, CA
Van Nuys, CA
San Jose, CA
Oakland/Berkeley, CA
Santa Ana, CA
Arlington, VA

Ms. Joanne M. Veto of the Postal Service said, "We will evaluate the program at the end of 90 days to determine if a national program can be supported. We hope to make that announcement in September.

But, until then, you should know that all our Priority and Express mail packages and envelopes exceed even the highest EPA standards for recyclability and that the Postal Service is the only shipping and mailing company in the nation to achieve Cradle to Cradle certification for the environmental attributes of our packages and envelopes. These supplies can be found in Post Office lobbies and online at the USPS website"