I wrote a letter to the Postmaster General asking, ‘Why are we not allowed to reuse Priority Mail boxes?’ I’ve known several people that have had their boxes opened and were not allowed to mail them, because they were Priority Mail boxes flipped inside out. If you are familiar with the boxes that are approximately the size of a VCR, those boxes can be flipped inside out easily so they won’t show anything on the outside (they brown on the inside). However over the last 3 or 4 years, they have been printing “USPS” or “Priority Mail” all over the inside of the boxes in black ink, so you can’t flip them inside out and reuse them.
Priority Mail boxes are free as long as you send your package priority mail, but I don’t see the harm done in simply reusing a box. After all, reusing an item as much as you can should come before recycling it.
Apparently some law was passed in 1999 regarding this. The USPS replied to my letter with the following information:
Effective September 9, 1999, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) C010.6.2 and E120.1.4 was amended to clarify standards for items mailed in United States Postal Service Express Mail and Priority Mail packaging. This revision states specifically that items mailed in Express Mail and Priority Mail packaging provided by the United States Postal Service must be charged the appropriate Express Mail or Priority Mail rate, regardless of how the packaging is reconfigured or how markings may be obliterated.
To this day I’ve never used a new Priority Mail box to mail something and don’t plan to. I keep old boxes and packaging around, often peeling off mailing labels or slicing the edge to flip it inside out. Even manila envelopes with bubbles can be reused, if not just for the bubbles. Of course you probably don’t want the packaging to look too sloppy when you sell something on eBay, but you can take a little time to make it look nice and help out the environment.
One way to get around the rule is to wrap the box in brown mailing paperafter sealing it up. I buy and sell on ebay, and this makes it so I can re-use boxes, saving myself money, saving the buyers money on shipping(I have noticed these boxes are a little lighter than most), and helping eliminate trash. Today I mailed some baby clothes to someone in Latvia in an inside out Priority mail box with the markings sharpied out. The worker who rang me up did not notice, but when I asked he told me that if the person that sorts the boxes notices it will be mailed back to me and no refund will be issued. Regretfully, he told me this after I had already paid for the box to be shipped. Wish me luck!