I can think of no better example of than the US Postal Service.
They’re literally is zero reason in 2024 why are we cutting down trees using diesel fuel to ship paper to a mill using coal to make it into paper using more diesel fuel to ship it to my home to be trashed picked up by a dump truck, using more diesel fuel to be thrown in a giant pile on what it would’ve been otherwise pristine piece of land.
I don't think the US Postal Service is responsible for the quantity of paper people are shipping to your doorstep, neither for the disposal of that pile of paper in a giant pile etc.
To be clear, you believe that everyone in the US is sufficuently digitally savvy and well equipped with digital technology that paper is no-longer needed? Have you tried volunteering with your local town's digital champion/digital mentoring programme, if they exist? Yoiu may find it it interesting
The existence of Amazon's shipping department, UPS, FedEx, DHL, among others, says that people still want to ship physical items around, despite is living in a digital age.
I received 6 letters in the last 6 months I want to keep. Three of them were cards from nieces/nephews. 3 of them were bills, but could have been sent via email. This is generously maybe 120 grams.
Compare that to the _enormous_ amount of unsolicited bulk trash that I have to clean out regularly. I would say the yearly minimum is 5kg with the upper bound probably around 25kg. I cannot fathom the huge diesel cost to deliver this crap straight to the landfill.
They’re literally is zero reason in 2024 why are we cutting down trees using diesel fuel to ship paper to a mill using coal to make it into paper using more diesel fuel to ship it to my home to be trashed picked up by a dump truck, using more diesel fuel to be thrown in a giant pile on what it would’ve been otherwise pristine piece of land.