Mail in a bag comes to an end today

Mail will come out of the bag Saturday for Carson City residents living in the 89701, 89703 and 89705 ZIP codes.

The U.S. Postal Service test for delivering mail in recyclable plastic bags ends today after starting Jan. 8 at almost 18,000 addresses served by the main post office on Washington Street.

Residents in the 89704 and 89706 ZIP codes served by Ormsby Station did not receive their mail in a plastic bag.

"I've heard from many people who loved the bags and many who didn't love them," Carson City Postmaster Doug Hval said.

Survey results, as well as Hval's analyses of sorting operations with the bags, will be analyzed at the Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"Many people loved the convenience and organization of it and being able to grab a bag and run," Hval said. "They liked the weather protection it provided."

Hval acknowledged that improvements are needed in the process to bag the mail.

"There were significant operational changes for letter carriers and clearly we had space considerations to deal with," Hval said. "Consistency was affected by additional processing time, but we were picking up time on the street."

"Today's Mail," as the bagged mail program was called, was the third time Carson City served as a test site for a postal service experiment.

Carson City was the first place to have a Post Office Express when it opened in SuperKmart in 1995 and last year Carson City was one of a handful of cities testing early delivery.

Carson City is one of 14 cities in the country that is used to test new concepts in mail delivery, Hval said.

Where to recycle bags: Postal facilities, Albertson's stores and Kmart.