Thanks to One Curious Mailman, We Now Know How Much the USPS Spends on Rubber Bands — and It's a Lot

You know when you're grabbing your mail from the mailbox on a Tuesday morning, sifting through the pile of junk, bills, and coupons, and you casually think, "Wow, I wonder how much money the USPS spends on rubber bands every year?" And then you go, "Huh," and go on about your day, completely forgetting the thought ever occurred?

Yeah, well that's not good enough for X (formerly Twitter) user @DumbMailGuy, who had one of those moments while delivering mail — presumably — and would stop at nothing to have his question answered.

And now, thanks to his curiosity, a $20 bribe, and the Freedom of Information Act, we now know exactly how much the United States Postal Service spends on rubber bands annually. And it's probably a lot more than you'd expect.

Let's take a look.

In an X post made on July 9, 2024, user @DumbMailGuy made netizens an offer that couldn't be refused: "I will pay a sum of [$20] to anyone who successfully submits a FOIA request and receives an answer to my lingering question of how much money the U.S. Postal Service spends on rubber bands every year."

For those unfamiliar, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a federal information law made to ensure that U.S. citizens stay informed, which is "vital to the functioning of a democratic society," per the official website. It states that "federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under the FOIA unless it falls under one of nine exemptions which protect interests such as personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement."

Anyone can submit an FOIA request, and if the information is fair game and not already publicly disclosed, then the government has to answer whatever is being asked.

And only two short months later, someone finally decided to take @DumbMailGuy up on his generous offer.

"In an update only I will care about," he said, "a generous, anonymous follower has actually taken me up on my request to harass my employer through the FOIA to find out how much USPS spends on rubber bands." And, according to their FOIA response, it's upwards of $1.5 million dollars per year.

@DumbMailGuy also shared a screenshot of the anonymous asker's initial request, and it was incredibly detailed.

"I am requesting access to and copies of all records related to the United States Postal Service's annual spending on rubber bands for the past three fiscal years," they wrote in their request. "This includes, but is not limited to total annual expenditures on rubber bands; contracts, invoices, and purchase orders related to the procurement of rubber bands; any documents specifying the quantity of rubber bands purchased annually; and any internal reports or analyses concerning rubber band usage and cost within the USPS."

And, per the FOIA, the federal government obliged with all available information (the details of which we won't bore you with, but you can check them out in @DumbMailGuy's original post).

While many were surprised that the number wasn't higher, DumbMailGuy made a great point to account for the discrepancy: "The problem is that individual offices have small discretionary budgets for expendables, and that's probably virtually impossible to track."

One man even remarked that his father, a former mail carrier, purchased his own rubber bands and was reimbursed by the USPS, which would not have shown up on their rubber band expenditure tracking.