I’ve got this Return to Sender stamp in red ink. What i’d like to do is send back all junk mail and mail from anyone who doesn’t live here anymore. Does the postal service have any policy wrt this?
Generally, it only works on First Class mail – not mail sent at bulk rate (junk mail).
For that mail, the Post Office will only return it if the sender has indicated that they will pay for returns, forwarding, etc. This will be indicated by statements like “Address Service Requested”, “Return Service Requested”, “Change Service
Requested”, or “Forwarding Service Requested” printed below the return address on the piece of mail.
alterego
Well, they did issue an Elvis Presley commemorative stamp many years ago. 
So if I stamp or write “return to sender” on a piece of junk mail and drop it in the outgoing slot, what happens to it?
The postman carries it back to the Post Office, and workers there throw it into the garbage (or a paper recycling bin).
This costs them time and effort, all of which is paid for by your taxes and the stamps you buy. If you and lots of others do this often, it increases Post Office expenses and they raise the price of stamps.
Don’t do this! Just throw it away yourself.
I thought that the post office has been independant of gov’t funding for a while. Am I wrong?
Yes. Interesting history of the US postal service. Looks like they’ve been independant of government financial subsidies since 1971.
Except they are still protected by a government-granted monopoly to deliver first-class mail. While not a direct susidy, it certainly helps prop them up.
Bolding mine for emphasis.
I can understand just throwing away junk mail, but if you’re throwing away legitimate mail for someone who used to live in your house, or mis-addressed mail for someone you’ve never heard of, does that come under the heading of mail tampering?
Wouldn’t it be in the Post Office’s interest to raise the charges for bulk mailing in this case since bulk mail would be generating the excess return-to-sender mails?
Are you saying that if Butlerco decided to start delivering letters (non USPS) to any address in the US, the USGov would block Butlerco from doing so, if I was willing to provide the service at a rate competative to the USPS?
I think the monopoly is on using your USPS MAILBOX. FedEx can’t legally stick your packages in there, even if they’re the FedEx Small Envelope variety.
Yes they would. My godfather was put out of business by the Post Office in the 1970s. He wasn’t using mailboxes, either. They pointed out that he was violating federal law and he ceased, and then desisted.
Was he undercutting the post office’s postage rate?
How could he have been making money?
He wasn’t in business for very long, but he was offering same-day delivery, or next-day delivery.
He was actually sued in Federal Court, USPS v. Brennan.
.United States v. Brennan, 439 U.S. 1345 (1978) (Marshall, J.) (denying stay) contains a summary of the arguments.
I consider my ignorance fought. Never would have though such a thing existed…
Case title is actually Brennan v. USPS
The postal employees would just throw them away. The companies that send you these advertisements pay for their delivery. The post office is **bound by law ** to deliver them to you. What you do with them after that is your business.
If you have a problem with these mailings, take it up with the companies doing the advertising, not the postal employees who are busting their ass to deliver your mail.
I’m not yelling at you, I realize you are just asking a question, I just don’t want anyone to get any ideas that it’s ok to take out their frustrations on the post office folks when it’s not their fault.