Generation of Post-Consumer Environmentally Benign Pressure Sensitive Adhesive Stamp Samples for Recycling Mill Trials, 2000 Recycling Symposium Proceedings

John V. Riley--A field test mail trial was designed and implemented by Specialized Technology Resources (STR) and the United States Postal Service (USPS) to complete Task IV of the Environmentally Benign Pressure Sensitive Adhesive (BPSA) Stamp Program. As designed, a total of 126 pre-qualified sample material configurations comprised the primary field test mail matrix. As implemented, 4,064,000 test-mail units bearing a total of 30,622,000 BPSA test stamps were exposed to typical mail processing environments within 50 different US postal regions. The test samples were processed via the USPS first class mail system. The processed test samples were regrouped according to material configuration, and overt test stamp performance was evaluated with respect to the total test mail cycle (Assembly, Processing and Delivery). Test mail envelopes were later used as a source of post-consumer feedstock in subsequent laboratory scale, pilot scale, and mill scale recycling trials. Materials that were not converted into test stamps were utilized as a pre-consumer material stream for the recycling mill trials.