by Ron Hall, Office of Communications

Here's a gripe:

Each of us gets our own share of mail--including journals, catalogues, marketing pubs, and periodicals--through the U.S. Postal Service. It's addressed to us individually, it arrives at our USDA work sites, and it's often unsolicited--or, if it had once been requested awhile back, now it's no longer wanted. In addition, some of our USDA colleagues--who, actually, are no longer USDA colleagues at that site because of retirements or relocations--still get scads of similar mail at their former USDA addresses, even though they've long since left the premises.

So we all keep tossing our individual piles of unwanted mail into the trash, as we mutter our own versions of "Good Riddance!"

The problem, however, is that there's a cost for handling all that unsolicited and/or unwanted mail--and USDA is footing the bill.

That's why last November the Department initiated a "Reduce Unwanted Mail Campaign" to alleviate the problem and reduce the costs--both in dollars and in workpower--associated with it. What follows is how the campaign has been working thus far, both at USDA headquarters and field locations.

"Yeah, we all receive a whole lot of mail like that at our work sites," affirmed Ed Murtagh, the Sustainable Operations Manager for the Office of Operations. "And even when some of those materials are actually wanted, there can be a lot of waste and duplication."

He ticked off examples of such mail, including: mail for USDA employees who are long gone; multiple mailings for the same employee caused by small inconsistencies--such as slightly different name spellings, misspellings, or abbreviations--that, at least in the eye of the sender, warrant multiple mailings; and poorly targeted mailings--such as office supply catalogs and training programs--that are sent to employees who aren't involved in the purchase, program, or activity being highlighted.

Murtagh explained that last year, while he and several USDA colleagues were reviewing the impact of USDA headquarters facilities on the local environment, he conferred with USDA mail service personnel on that topic. "They alerted me to this continuing problem about unwanted mail," he recalled. "So we decided to try and find a solution."

"Our goal," he emphasized, "was to cut down on the amount of unwanted mail by helping employees to keep their names off of uninvited, unsolicited, and unwanted mailing lists--and also by helping employees to request that companies and publishers delete their names from those mailing lists, as appropriate."

Accordingly, as a first step in the "Reduce Unwanted Mail Campaign," OO's Mail and Reproduction Management Division disseminated a "Mailer's Memo" which described the campaign. "Our November 2008 'Mailer's Memo' was titled 'Special Edition--Going Green; Reduce Unwanted Mail'," recounted Betty Froehlich, USDA's Mail Manager in OO. "And we actually colored this single-sheet flyer green, to emphasize that we were serious about tackling this problem." She noted that OO's "Mailer's Memos" are sent to the mail collection offices, at headquarters, of USDA's program agencies and staff offices.

The flyer advised that, through a pilot project, USDA had set up special "Unwanted Mail Containers" at several sites around the USDA headquarters complex. It encouraged employees to place their unwanted mail, to include catalogs, brochures, journals, and periodicals, in those specially-marked white cardboard containers, and pledged that "The Office of Operations staff will work to get in touch with the vendor to delete your name from their mailing list."

In addition, three USDA postcards were attached to each copy of the November "Mailer's Memo." "We advised in the flyer," Froehlich said, "that 'If you would like to delete your name from these unwanted mailing lists yourself, we are attaching some postcards that can be used to send to the companies'."

Michele Lambert, Director of the Mail and Reproduction Management Division, said USDA has estimated that it receives about 50 tons of junk mail each year in the Department's Mail Center which services USDA's Headquarters Complex. Put another way, she noted, the Mail Center receives about 3,000-4,000 pieces of mail each work day, and about 25 percent of those pieces could be considered unwanted mail.

"So if we reduced that paper consumption by 50 tons per year, we'll preserve about 750 trees annually," she emphasized. "And we'll improve the efficiency of our Mail Center."

That sounds like a solid game plan. So how has it been working?

Barbara Brooks, the Office Manager in OO's Washington Area Service Center, replied that she has been serving as the hands-on person for the Department to help get the unwanted mail cancelled. "Well, we haven't been getting an avalanche of unwanted mail--which we had originally expected," she acknowledged. "The unwanted items have been trickling in at a few pieces of mail a day."

She explained that, once she receives an item of unwanted postal mail, her standard procedure is to contact the customer service office--either by e-mail or by phone--of the source of that unwanted mail. She then requests the removal of the USDA employee name in question from that source's mail data base.

"Without exception so far," she noted, "they've been quite helpful and eager to comply." Often they'll send Brooks a followup e-mail to confirm the action they've taken, although they sometimes acknowledge that it may take a few mail cycles before the name removal registers with the source's computers.

"One thing I'd like to do as a next step," Brooks said, "is to do some sample spot-checks, to follow up with our employees to confirm that the unwanted mail is, in fact, no longer being received."

"Of course," she added, "for those USDA employees who aren't here anymore, that's sort of academic."

On some occasions the Department's Mail Center receives a hefty bulk of mail, such as 500 catalogues, with an individual USDA employee name on each catalogue. In those instances, Froehlich has been the person to contact the source of the mailing. She then provides guidance to that source on how to get those employee names removed from the source's database, plus how to get those unsolicited shipments to USDA stopped.

But what if some USDA employees actually want those catalogues--even if they were unsolicited? "In these 'bulk' situations," Froehlich replied, "our mail staff does an initial check, and we've generally found that a sizable number of the employee names have been 'outdated or erroneous'."

"In addition," she pointed out, "in many instances those bulk mailings will only include an employee name but not an office address, since the source assumes that we will add those addresses, and then make the deliveries--of each and every one of those catalogues."

"Look," she emphasized, "we want to focus our time and resources on delivering the official mail that employees want and need--instead of this unsolicited and unwanted mail."

Froehlich added that, in one such recent situation, the catalogue company she had contacted then asked if it could pick up the unsolicited catalogues itself and then deliver them to other sources. "Are you kidding, of course!" Froehlich advised her contact. "That keeps us from having to handle these items yet again."

In February 2009 the campaign moved beyond the pilot stage and became more solidified. "We concluded that it's both cost-effective and time-effective to continue this particular effort--and to expand it as well, if we can," Murtagh explained.

Might the removal of an employee's name from unwanted mailing lists be formally incorporated into the 'outprocessing checklist' of employees who are retiring or otherwise leaving USDA?

"I think that's worth looking into," Murtagh said.

So, is the plan to expand this campaign to USDA field offices?

"Personnel from a number of USDA agencies, who have participated in the campaign at the headquarters level, have contacted me about the feasibility of initiating similar campaigns at their field offices, as appropriate," Murtagh replied. "And I've been helping them develop a template that would replicate this campaign at our field offices."

"So stand by: you might be seeing evidence of the 'Reduce Unwanted Mail Campaign'--hopefully at USDA field offices, from coast to coast."