Will the U.S. Postal Service permit a practically indestructible material to be reused?
The U.S. Postal Service demands that I discard perfectly good, used Tyvek Priority and Express Mail envelopes, and I am tired of it. Their concern seems to be that people will grab these envelopes, turn them inside-out, and use them for regular first-class or media rate mailings, which effectively costs the Post Office money. In fact, they have threatened dire consequences if I try to reuse them for media mail. But my theory is that it is both environmentally unsound and illegitimate for the Post Office to forbid this reuse as the envelope is no longer USPS property once it is delivered to me with proper Priority or Express mail postage—the sender paid the Express or Priority postage. Once the carrier gives me the delivery, that Tyvek envelope—which is nearly indestructible and should be reused scores of times—it is mine to use as I wish, which includes the noblest reuse of this very sturdy material: mailing books at the media rate. As I see it, if the reuse of these envelopes is truly
