By volume, most days have more un-addressed flyers than letter mail.
About half of the addressed letter mail is bulk rate mail: ads of various kinds, charities and churches asking for money.
Of the remaining mail (1st class mail) most is bank statements and utility bills. Then a decent amount of government mail. Some magazines, some documents, checks, some greeting cards, an occasional postcard. Sometimes TCG cards.
It’s definitely one of those “80% junk” situations, but some is medium-importance, and sometimes high importance (tax and immigration documents). And those occasional important items are what keeps the system working, otherwise no one would bother with any of it.
By volume, most days have more un-addressed flyers than letter mail.
About half of the addressed letter mail is bulk rate mail: ads of various kinds, charities and churches asking for money.
Of the remaining mail (1st class mail) most is bank statements and utility bills. Then a decent amount of government mail. Some magazines, some documents, checks, some greeting cards, an occasional postcard. Sometimes TCG cards.
It’s definitely one of those “80% junk” situations, but some is medium-importance, and sometimes high importance (tax and immigration documents). And those occasional important items are what keeps the system working, otherwise no one would bother with any of it.
I’m just wondering what portion is literally spent on sending mail to people who are actually dead
Hard to say; I only see it if it’s RTSed, if the recipient throws it away I have no idea.
RTS mail is a pretty tiny fraction of total mail, and that’s mostly just people moving.