The U.S. Postal Service is in trouble. It’s been struggling with financial and structural problems for a long time, facing competition from private companies and paperless communication methods. Now, drastic changes are recommended. The Government Accountability Office placed the post office on the list of high-risk federal agencies in need of change, and the independent Postal Regulatory Commission recently released a list of nearly 700 metropolitan post office branches that may be closed or consolidated in the near future. In addition, the services offered by the U.S. Postal Service may be cut from the current six days a week down to just five. Already, some changes can be seen nationwide; the U.S. Postal Service is removing many of the mail drop boxes that can be found around communities, saying that the cost of maintaining them just isn’t worth the small volume of mail they collect.

What’s been bogging down the U.S. Postal Service that could lead to a situation like this? The recession is part of the problem, with overall postal revenues dropping. The dominance of the web is another hurdle, as most households with Internet access send emails instead of letters and pay at least one bill online, meaning less postage is spent to mail a check to the billing company. In fact, most of those who pay bills online cite environmental preservation as part of their motivation to go paperless, which is great news for the planet but bad news for the post office. The combination of these two factors has caused the single biggest drop in postal volume in the agency’s 234-year history, just in this past year alone. Less volume means less revenue, which also means having to cut postal routes, offer early retirement to workers and find other means to recoup the losses.

Some critics say that the U.S. Postal Service should have privatized long ago. They say that the bureaucratic nature of the organization has created a bloated, inefficient agency that would best be served by a complete overhaul. The post office is indeed trying to keep up with the times through online services and other means, but it hasn’t been enough. How could the post office have stayed in business this long with the Internet and economy taking bites out of its revenue?

The answer, unfortunately, is junk mail. Junk mail delivery has become the foundation of the U.S. Postal Service’s business model, with 800 pieces of junk mail delivered to each household per year. Junk mail alone hasn’t been enough to shore up the entire agency – the U.S. Postal Service reported a loss of $7 billion in 2008 – but it’s been a temporary fix that’s slowed the decline of the post office and allowed the government to put off revamping the system. Now, the overhaul can’t wait any longer, which may be good news for those who dislike junk mail (that’s pretty much everyone); changing how the U.S. Postal Service does business might help it end its reliance on junk mail, which might then lead to more options for cutting junk mail altogether.

It remains to be seen just what will be done to the U.S. Postal Service, but one thing is true: This is a new era of communication, and even post offices must evolve to accommodate the changes. As Geoff Caldwell of the Wichita Independent Examiner put it, “The postal closings will bring pain to some, inconvenience for others, and ‘change’ for all, but they will not bring the end of the world.”

In the meantime, you can stop your own junk mail, help the environment and cut down on your own aggravation by signing up for the Privacy Council’s list removal service. The service removes you from all major marketing lists and keeps you on the “Do Not Call” registry so that your telemarketing calls go down. Click here to get started!