Dear Editor:

    In this letter, what I have to say concerns the U.S. Postal Service Administration, nationwide, and of course, local residents of the United States. In general, I am not concerned about any local postmaster or his employees, and certainly, not any specific location. It has been my good fortune to deal with these federal employees often; and, in my opinion, they do an outstanding job in getting out the mail on their delivery routes; that operate all across McCreary County, where we buy postage stamps, mail parcels, or rent a postoffice box; so a package or a letter will go safely to the delivery address.

    What is happening is that literally thousands of items they deliver are insignificant materials, that on the same day of delivery will be tossed into local garbage bags; and then goes directly to the landfill on a weekly basis. Almost every day I get 15 to 30 letters. Most of them brought to me by reduced postage, and today, for example, eight of these responses were Sweepstakes proposals. These are services for which an individual pays the first class rate for postage, and corporations such as these and others are paying reduced rates, actually less than half the first class rate. Although it’s probably not significant, that some customers have a lot from what I see at the pick-up points along the route, when garbage is collected; it is significant that a local resident is paying the greater part of the postage for the use of corporations. We should have a system that will handle all these excess paper products that are dumped on the route weekly. The actual decision as to what we discharge is local, but the material is put on us by a system that is out of balance. The landfill system is necessary and proper in that it is discarding all the materials brought to the pick up points. However, there is no system established by the government that deals with the collection of reusable or salvageable materials. And this is where we should be making our main thrust by creating a government entity and/or regulations that deals with reclamation. This favoritism to cater to corporations brings this iniquity to our citizenry. All, both businesses or individuals should live by the same standard. Individuals pay more than their share to keep the environment clean.

    Although these many operations to keep the environment clean comes from personal residences and is recyclable; and undoubtedly the waste disposal facilities have additional income from their restoration and reclamation salvage operations, i.e. Paper cardboard or metal objects are being salvaged to be used again, but only a small percentage is affected. A new organization should be incorporated that will account for 100% of all the salable wasted that is spread over the many entities involved. Many times in the past postage fees have been increased because of this situation.

    A postage stamp has increased over the years for first class from 2¢ to 44¢, and it looks as if it is to be increased again in the near future. It came to my attention recently that a package I had not ordered was shipped to me for c.a.50¢; so when the identical package was returned the rate was $1.19. This additional postage plus all the other and lost materials and time and different Postoffices gave different amounts as to what it would take to send it back. In other words the people that send these materials out originally are not paying the actual cost. Their rates should be increased. Perhaps, I’m wrong but I believe local residents are paying about three times what the initial supplier pays to send a package you way. And for all the companies that fill your mailbox with insignificant and exorbitant materials; they should be paying the higher rate. As most schemes to increase use of a known product are backed by radio-T.V. advertising, then first class rates should be awarded to corporations suppliers. This I believe would eliminate must of the junk mail that we see every day. Also, literally, tons of paper products go from the mailbox to the garbage every time the mail man makes his deliveries. So I write this letter, which I’m sending to our Congressman, who I believe can initiate legislation, that will bring change to the system.

    Another problem, and a good example of what I say, as mentioned before of the Postal Service accepting and allowing numerous Sweepstakes Corporations to mail their propaganda to local people at a reduced rate. These companies are soliciting our people to enter a sweepstakes or a giveaway, and are making unbelievable statements as to what will be the reward, if they enter. This I consider an invasive strategy when a sweepstakes company uses the name of a good and faithful charity to solicit donations, that will give the donation to them to give to the charity. A good example is the “Children’s Cancer Fund of America. There are several others that are doing the same thing. So a donor doesn’t really know where his money goes, and it would be my guess that is all goes to the Sweepstakes Managers, who make this a practice. Certainly, this practice will harm any charity that is involved with Sweepstakes, in other ways. In one day recently on this same issue, I personally received eight solicitations from Sweepstakes Managers. This should be stopped. If they are allowed to continue, they should at least pay the full first class rate.

    As it is now, we’re burning our forests, eliminating species of life there-in and bringing to landfills many plastic materials and other chemically treated paper, etc. These products should be reused and a special category should be assigned, so that good materials do not end up in a landfill. If brought into line, I believe that these practices would conserve materials and bring new jobs to our people. A nation’s people as prolific as the United States citizenry should still be able to send a letter to a child’s grandparents for no more than 5¢. Then all that wasted cellulose throughout our nation would not be a mountain in a landfill, but in storage buildings awaiting the time it would be needed again. It would create new jobs, and give us a healthier environment.

Sincerely Yours,

Robert E. Stephens

Whitley City, KY