In this episode of Mailin’ It!, USPS Chief Sustainability Officer Jennifer Beiro-Reveille joins the show to shine a light on how the Postal Service is championing the “circular economy.” Listeners will learn how the organization is driving major environmental change by diverting materials from landfills, increasing package recyclability, and even helping customers shrink their own carbon footprints.
When a package arrives at your door, it’s easy to focus on what’s inside rather than what it’s shipped in—but the United States Postal Service is working to change that. In this episode, our hosts sit down with USPS Chief Sustainability Officer Jennifer Beiro-Reveille to unpack how the Postal Service is helping boost the “circular economy” by keeping packaging waste out of landfills. Discover how the USPS is turning throwaway materials like cardboard and shrink wrap into valuable resources, crushing its greenhouse gas emission targets, and how BlueEarth® services help securely and sustainably process e-waste and undeliverable mail. Tune in for this eye-opening look at how the USPS is ensuring its efforts with smart recycling, electric vehicles, and green innovation are moving customers towards a more sustainable future.
Karla Kirby:
Hi everybody. Welcome to Mailin’ It, the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm Karla Kirby.
Jeff Marino:
And I'm Jeff Marino. Karla, when you get a package delivered to your door, you're probably thinking more about what's inside the package than the package it's actually shipped in.
Karla Kirby:
That's a good point, Jeff. And it's one we're going to explore this episode as we talk about how the Postal Service is working to generate less waste and recycle more.
Jeff Marino:
It's known as the circular economy, and it's a big part of our plan for keeping materials like cardboard, shrink wrap, and even old electronics in use and out of the landfills. It's about trying to turn something that was once considered waste into something that can be reused.
Karla Kirby:
To walk us through this timely topic, we're welcoming Jennifer Beiro-Reveille back on the show. Jennifer is the Chief Sustainability Officer for the Postal Service. Jennifer, nice to see you again.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Thank you, Karla. Great to see you too. So you know me, I like to share the great things that the Postal Service is doing, especially for the environment.
Jeff Marino:
Well, Jennifer, we hear the term circular economy a lot lately, and if I'm just a regular customer, what does that actually mean and how does that show up in day-to-day Postal Service operations?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Good question. So I'll try to be simple with the answer, but simply state it as circular economy is focused on prioritizing reuse, recycling, and resourcing of materials to keep them in circulation with the objective of reducing production of new materials. And by doing so, we are reducing what is being sent to those landfills and the subsequent methane gas that those landfills emit. And so an example, a good example of a circular economy is this shirt I'm wearing. It's a good example because I got it from a thrift store, right? So I'm reusing. Me and the environment win at least if you like my shirt,
Jeff Marino:
Sure!
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Karla Kirby:
I think a good example of that is our national recycling program, especially for materials like shrink wrap and cardboard. It's something most of us barely notice. So how is the Postal Service turning those throwaway materials into something valuable?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Good question. You know, for years, okay, decades used cardboard containers, were just another material to be put in the trash, and we pay for that trash removal, by the way. So by rethinking how we manage this material, we have developed a more sustainable strategy that is good for the environment as well as our bottom line. Using our own in-house reverse logistics, we backhaul this material to our recycling hub sites where the material is bailed or compacted and sold as a recyclable commodity. So I should put that in perspective. For size and scope, in fiscal year 2025, we recycled almost two times the amount of cardboard that we recycled in fiscal year 2020. The same mindset applies to other materials, such as all that shrink wrap that's just swabbed around all those very large cardboard gaylords to keep everything intact. You've seen those cardboard gaylords, they're, they're on our docks, they're within our operations. So instead of paying to get rid of all that plastic shrink wrap, by bailing this material, we have turned this waste into another valuable recyclable commodity that can be sold to recyclers. And to further support the circular economy, the Postal Services helping to drive demand for recyclable commodities. So Karla, maybe you are thinking, Hmm, how so Jennifer? Well, we do this by annually procuring millions of dollars of postal packaging and mail transportation containers that are made from recycled materials – win! It's great partnering with like-minded circular economy suppliers.
Jeff Marino:
Interesting. So we focus a lot on better managing our resources through recycling. But another big part of what we do is actually helping customers with their own recycling and resource management. Can you talk about how we're doing that?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Sure. I love this part of our sustainable story, so thanks for asking. We have focused on ensuring that our core shipping products physically represent our circular economy focus with our sustainable packaging being in the hands of our customers. I want our listeners to know that priority mail and priority mail express boxes and envelopes are made with recycled materials and they are recyclable. Our ground advantage cardboard packaging is also. On a separate but related newsworthy tidbit, it's also good for our customers to know that postage stamps do not interfere with the recyclability of an envelope. So you can recycle stamped envelopes in the same place you recycle paper at your home or office. Win-Win. We know that our customers want sustainable options and we deliver them.
Karla Kirby:
So recycling is something the Postal Service has been doing for a long time and it's great to hear that our program is still going strong and increasing. Big programs like this don't just happen. Who inside the Postal Service is pushing these efforts forward?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Well, it's often stated, but every successful initiative needs to start at the top, right? And in this case, it starts at the top with our postmaster general. With his background in waste management, he understands the practical business side of recycling. And to be clear, that would be our postmaster general David Steiner, who among a lot of other priorities, leads our environmental council, which consists of senior executives throughout our organization that direct our transportation, our procurement, our facilities, and like we're doing here, our communication efforts as we codify actions to reduce our environmental footprint. We know that our customers want us to be good stewards of the communities we serve and we deliver for them.
Jeff Marino:
One of the other contributions we make to the circular economy involves our USPS Blue Earth Services, which actually help mailers manage their waste more efficiently and in a responsible manner.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
You know, I feel like our Blue Earth suite of services might not get the attention it deserves. So thank you for bringing that up Jeff. For our listeners that haven't heard of it before, our Blue Earth Secure Destruction program is a pretty cool service. So here we go. A Postal Service customer, typically a business mailer, uses our first class mail service to ensure that the contents of that mail is privacy protected. When that mail is undeliverable as addressed, it is returned to the sender. The Postal Service returns - this is a fun fact - on average, we return over 1.2 billion pieces of undeliverable first class mail annually. So as you might expect, returning all this mail costs money for both the mailer and the Postal Service. But wait, the Blue Earth Secure Destruction mail service option developed by the Postal Service over 10 years ago uses intelligent mail barcode technology to identify and intercept undeliverable first class mail.
So rather than returning the mail, it is securely destroyed by the Postal Service in-house using industrial shredding equipment at the mail processing facility where it was generated. The mailers receive an electronic notification about each piece of mail that was securely destroyed and all of the paper shreds from the process are then recycled. So let me share a couple of fun important facts. There is no additional cost to use the Secure Destruction Mail service option and it's available to our address change service mailers. Today there are over 450 major business mailers enrolled in the service. Our secure destruction service program eliminated over 188 million pieces of return to sender mail. It's really a win-win program because it benefits the mailers, the Postal Service and the environment. So I love this: The mailers and the Postal Service save money while the overall carbon impacts of first class mail are reduced. So to put that in perspective, approximately one ton of greenhouse gas is avoided for every 25,000 pieces of return to sender mail that is eliminated.
Karla Kirby:
Wow, those are staggering numbers. And another really interesting Blue Earth service basically provides a mail back program for government e-waste. How does the Blue Earth Federal Recycling program work?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Alright, so our Blue Earth mail back service allows federal agencies and their employees to easily recycle 32 different types of small electronics. That's a lot. So here's how it works. Participating agencies that have an active memorandum of understanding in place with the Postal Service can go online and print postage paid labels to ship their used electronics to a certified recycler. And yes, this service is available in all 50 states and the US territories. And you know, we're a big country, so it is especially useful to federal agencies with facilities located in remote locations that don't have any feasible electronic recycling options available to them. I really think that this is an impressive example of partnering with federal organizations. Today there are 44 federal agencies that are working with the Postal Service to utilize this service.
Jeff Marino:
So we've talked about helping our customers protect sensitive information and clear out obsolete electronic technology. But our Blue Earth carbon accounting program is a unique service that helps them keep an eye on the bigger picture. How does the Postal Service help customers understand the greenhouse gas emissions that are actually tied to shipping?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Excellent, excellent question, Jeff. Thank you. Our Blue Earth carbon accounting, it's a no fee service for business customers that calculates the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their shipping and mailing activities. That's important and techy. So I'm going to say it again. Our Blue Earth carbon accounting is a no fee service we provide for our business customers, and that service calculates the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their shipping and mailing activities. That means that our customers can track and manage their own greenhouse gas emissions as part of tracking their environmental goals. This has truly become a value add service for our business customers. It's a win-win. The Postal Service has a competitive edge in the shipping industry while helping our business partners make traction on their own sustainability commitments.
Karla Kirby:
So Jennifer, we should also touch on the idea of reverse logistics as part of the circular economy. Returns are a huge part of online shopping. What happens environmentally when that process works well versus when it doesn't?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Another good question, Karla. An efficient returns process is what allows retailers to inspect, restock, resell, or properly recycle returned items. And we know that without that efficient return process, more goods would unfortunately end up in those landfills.
Jeff Marino:
So speaking of efficiency, in our last podcast you told us about the environmental targets that the Postal Service initiated a couple years ago. Can you give us an update on how that's going?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Thanks for asking and I'm happy to tell you and our listeners that we are making progress. To summarize for our listeners who might have missed our last conversation, the Postal Services environmental commitment includes three core areas, climate action, circular economy, and environmental awareness. These are critical codependent focus areas to reduce our environmental impact by managing our emissions and expanding our environmentally focused fleet and facilities. We're also prioritizing sustainable acquisitions - so shout out to our resourceful supply management partners! We are also focused on recycling and reusing to keep products and materials in circulation and out of landfills. And lastly, like I'm doing now, we deliver environmental communication to our employees, our communities, and federal, state, and local entities.
Karla Kirby:
Well, this is excellent. So where have we made the most progress?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Well, I'm happy to report that we are focused on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. As a reminder, our emission targets are to reduce our scopes one and two emissions by 40%, and to reduce our scope three emissions by 20% with a target to achieve those goals by fiscal year 2030. And as I think I mentioned last time, that's from a baseline of 2021. I know my team and I get carried away with our lingo and I'm trying not to be geeky, so I should clarify that our scope three emission sources are mostly straight from the tailpipes of our contracted transportation. But scope three emissions also include - fun facts - employee, business travel, employee commuting, contracted, and fully service leases like our buildings along with other sources.
Jeff Marino:
Well that's pretty impressive. Are there any other Postal Service environmental success stories that you'd like to share with us?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Sure! We deliver for you. We deliver for all of you. Fun fact. So I was once an architect engineer in our facilities department, and my group right now is under our senior Vice President of Facilities and Infrastructure. And our facilities folks are focused. As a result of our facilities and fleet acquisition team’s keen focus on renewable energy, we have exceeded our goal to increase renewable electricity consumption to 10%. Last year that team's achievements included actions that allowed us to increase our renewable energy to 13% of total consumption.
Karla Kirby:
Well, Jennifer, this certainly does seem that we're making great progress. Any update on our electric fleet?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Yes, in fact, I recently checked in and specific to our fleet acquisitions so far we have acquired 9,244 E-transit vans and 975 battery electric, Next Generation Delivery Vehicles. I wonder if any of you have seen them tooling around? I know I've got one in my neighborhood.
Jeff Marino:
I actually have seen a couple of those. What other environmentally focused initiatives might our customers have seen?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Well I hope our customers have noticed our sustainable packaging. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to track progress towards our FY 2030 goals regarding increasing packaging recycled content, and increasing packaging recyclability, I don't wanna get too geeky here again, but essentially that means that we are being mindful of the materials that our customers hold in their hands and bring into their homes. Have you ever noticed a rectangular recycling label on packaged products that you buy, like your granola boxes in your kitchen cupboards maybe?
Karla Kirby:
You know, I think I may have seen them, Jennifer, but I don't think about it much. Can you tell us a little bit more about those?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
Sure. I'm here to help. So six years ago I signed an agreement with How to Recycle, which is a great organization. So we've been using their consumer oriented package labeling system to help our customers recycle or whatever the label says, recycle or dispose of our packages properly. Each label communicates instructions needed to prepare the item for proper disposal. So material type such as paper or plastic and packaging format such as bottles or boxes to make recycling easier and clearer to understand. We have expanded the program beyond our priority mail, priority mail express, and ready post packaging to include our USPS Ground Advantage packaging. So How To Recycle guidance can be seen on, on a lot of our products, our postcards, our posters, and certain printed paper products.
Karla Kirby:
So Jennifer, now that you've referenced our packaging products, I have noticed that How To Recycle label. It's very helpful. So what's next on the horizon?
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
We continue with our focus. We work with our colleagues on initiatives that will help us work collectively towards achieving our environmental targets, while certainly acknowledging the challenges, but we are focused. We know that our accomplishments are not only reducing our environmental footprint, but they're also increasing efficiency, strengthening operations, and helping us build a more resilient Postal Service.
Jeff Marino:
Well, Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. It's obvious you are still as passionate about this topic as you've ever been, and thank you for finding ways to keep us on track to meet our targets. It's an admirable goal and obviously you're got a team that really cares about this.
Jennifer Beiro-Reveille:
I agree.
Karla Kirby:
And thank you for coming back of course and just enlightening us and the listeners about the good work that the Postal Service is doing around recycling. And I love the blouse!
It is time for another edition of Did You Know, where we Share some lesser known facts about the US Postal Service. I'll take this one, Jeff.
Jeff Marino:
Take it away.
Karla Kirby:
In the spirit of the country's 250th anniversary, did you know that some form of military mail has existed since the American Revolution?
Jeff Marino:
Well, I know we've covered military mail before, but I didn't realize you could connect it all the way back that far.
Karla Kirby:
Right! At the beginning, the Continental Army relied on official couriers, field posts, and civilian post writers to pass along orders, intelligence and personal letters. Military mail has evolved over the years with the big changes during both World Wars and Korea. Today's modern framework was set up in the 1980s when the Military Postal Service Agency was created.
Jeff Marino:
And how does that agency work with the US Postal Service?
Karla Kirby:
So basically, Jeff USPS handles the home front side of military mail. It takes letters and packages from the public, applies domestic postage rules and moves that mail through our network to major military mail gateways located near Miami, New York City, and San Francisco. From there, the Military Postal Service Agency, which is part of the Department of Defense, takes over. They act as an extension of USPS in dozens of countries by managing post offices for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and State Department. The military Postal Service sets up military or contracted transportation so mail can get to units and embassies in war zones and remote bases and ships at sea.
Jeff Marino:
Yes, it's great to know we've got a network like that set up to get mail to the men and women serving in our country. And even with email and social media, there is nothing like a letter or a care package from home.
Karla Kirby:
And that's all for this episode of Mailin’ It. Don't forget to subscribe to Mailin’ It wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss the next episode and follow along on Instagram @USPostalService X @usps, facebook and youtube.com/@usps.