The United States Postal Service furthered its efforts to embrace new, green technologies this week, even as these technologies eat away at the USPS' age-old business model of letter delivery.

Over the past couple years, the postal service has been employing cleaner energy at some of their plants and experimenting with hybrid diesel-electric alternatives for some of their 200,000 + vehicles.

This week, USPS launched a program that allows patrons to pick up postpaid envelopes (no limit) to send used inkjet cartridges, cell phones, digital cameras, and other devices to be recycled, free of charge.

The program takes off this week in some 1,500 post offices, including most in the Los Angeles area.

One of apparently few government services that do not go the no-bid contract, route, USPS chose Clover Technologies Group, out of a group of 20 applicants, according to the press release.

The Postal Service recycles 1 million tons of paper, plastic and other materials annually. Last year, USPS generated more than $7.5 million in savings through recycling and waste prevention programs. The nation’s environmental watchdog, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the Postal Service eight WasteWise Partner of the Year awards, the agency’s top honor. -- USPS