March 24, 2026 The Postal Service is reminding employees who handle, store and dispose of used light bulbs and batteries to follow the proper protocols for their disposal. Many light bulbs and batteries contain hazardous components, such as mercury and lead, and must not be tossed in the trash. These are regulated wastes and must … Read more
February 6, 2026 Postal Service facilities that store certain quantities of hazardous chemicals must complete and submit the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Tier II form by March 1 each year. Reporting requirements apply to any location that stores threshold quantities of EPCRA-regulated chemicals, such as sulfuric acid in lead-acid and gel cell … Read more
The Postal Service continues to improve its longstanding hazmat policies and procedures to help prevent incidents, such as adding lithium battery marking, packaging and transport mode requirements; and controlling limits and packaging standards for corrosive fluids, including prohibiting highly corrosive fluids such as mercury that can leak and cause burns.
August 3, 2023 The Postal Service wants to remind employees to safeguard the mailstream from improperly wrapped or damaged packages containing hazardous materials. Once packages containing damaged, leaking or nonmailable hazardous materials are identified, they should be brought to a designated rewrap or hazardous material mail staging area for assessment. Hazardous items that are disposed … Read more
Correction 7/27/2023: Don’t Mail Mercury The article titled “Don’t Mail Mercury,” published in Postal Bulletin 22268 (7-13-23, pages 33–34), contained incorrect information regarding the international mailability of compact fluorescent lamps. Compact fluorescent lamps are prohibited to international destinations. The corrected information is shown in bold: Compact fluorescent lamps contain small amounts of mercury vapor. If broken, there will be … Read more
September 27, 2021 The Postal Service is reminding employees that most waste bulbs contain hazardous materials and must be disposed of properly. Fluorescent, high intensity discharge (HID), light emitting diode (LED), neon and ultraviolet bulbs contain mercury or other toxic metals. When these bulbs are no longer usable, they are considered universal waste and must … Read more
July 2, 2021 The Postal Service is reminding employees that waste aerosol cans must be stored and disposed of properly. These cans are a potential safety and environmental hazard because they may contain unused chemical products and propellant. Aerosol cans that contain unused liquid or propellants must never be disposed of in the regular trash. … Read more
To protect the health and safety of our employees and the general public, the Postal Service™ has developed specific procedures for safeguarding, identifying, handling, and delivering hazardous materials (HAZMAT). Since there have been several recent incidents of non-mailable HAZMAT in the mailstream, November has been designated “HAZMAT Awareness Month” to highlight these issues. Incidents, including … Read more
