Royal Mail rubber band
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Royal Mail rubber band is a small red elastic loop used by the postal delivery service in the United Kingdom. In the course of its work, the Royal Mail consumes nearly one billion rubber bands per year to tie together bundles of letters at sorting offices.[1] In the 2000s, complaints about Royal Mail rubber bands littering the streets of Britain gave rise to ongoing press interest in this minor cultural phenomenon.
In a response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by Steve Woods to the Royal Mail in December 2008, the company disclosed that it used the following numbers of rubber bands in each of the three years from 2005/6 to 2007/8:[1]
- 2005–6 – 753,480,000
- 2006–7 – 825,750,000
- 2007–8 – 871,695,000
- 2009–10 – 760,000,000[2]
According to the Daily Record, costs for rubber bands in the 2007–08 period were £982,677.[3] Figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph showed that between 2007 and 2011, spending on rubber bands increased by 40%.[4] In 2009–2010, the numbers used equated to one rubber band being used for every 28 letters that the Royal Mail delivered.[2]
Complaints
Complaint and comment on the theme of discarded rubber bands is a recurring focus of media interest. A Times story in 2006—"Posties' red rubber bands stretch public's patience"—is fairly typical. It notes a campaign by the London Borough of Lewisham's mayor, who complains that an estimated 5,000 bands are dropped in his borough each month; it details the response to a November 2005 BBC Radio Essex programme in which listeners were asked to send in found rubber bands - allegedly 10,000 were received; and it makes a range of more or less whimsical suggestions for the re-use of such bands—as rubber balls, "chopsticks for butterfingers", and rubber band tanks.[5] Lewisham's campaign[6] was picked up by a number of other news outlets, such as the BBC.[7] The story resurfaces from time to time, independently of specific campaigns.[8]
At least one report of injury to wildlife has been presumed because of Royal Mail rubber bands, in the case of a duck observed with a rubber band wrapped around its head.[9] Cases of hedgehogs dying from their contact with rubber bands have been reported, with fatalities being caused by the objects sticking to the animal and the creature's flesh becoming enmeshed with it over time.[10]
Campaign
In April 2009, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign has involved itself in the issue as part of its Big Tidy Up campaign, and returned some 13,000 bands that had been collected by the public to the Royal Mail.[11][12][13] The campaign, together with a similar initiative by the Keep Scotland Beautiful organisation,[3] once again raised the profile of the issue, gaining coverage by the press.[14][15][16][17][18]