USPS Office of Inspector General

The U.S. Postal Service we know today looks much different than it did a century ago. Its delivery network — including curbside mailboxes and delivery vehicles — was originally designed to deliver letters.

With the explosive growth of ecommerce over recent years, the Postal Service finds itself focusing more on delivering packages to mailboxes and front doors across the country. The Postal Service delivered about 6 billion packages in 2019, doubling its volume over a decade.

Ever wonder where parcels go if the labels fall off? Or what happens if a package is undeliverable?

The U.S. Postal Service’s Mail Recovery Center (MRC) serves as the “lost and found” center for the Postal Service, receiving items determined to be undeliverable for a number of reasons. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, the MRC received 67 million items from post offices and other facilities around the country. While that’s a large number, it’s a small fraction of a percent of the 142 billion mailpieces the Postal Service delivered that same year.

We’ve all heard the mantra “recycle, reuse, and reduce,” but did you know that people focus not only on what products they should buy, but also on how their purchases are packaged, shipped, and delivered?