USPS Office of Inspector General

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?

The COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders have shown us all the value of having mail and parcels delivered to our door, but even during normal times there are remote and rural communities that rely solely on the Postal Service to deliver their parcels year-round.