A U.S. customs shake-up has left European posts refusing parcels — and even The Recycler’s bulk copies to America are bouncing back. While the ‘big boys’ play politics, readers can still get the latest issue online.
When U.S. customs moved the goalposts, European postal operators stopped accepting parcels. The result? Even The Recycler’s carefully packed bulk copies to America are being sent straight back.
The U.S. has scrapped its “de minimis” exemption. The rule that lets parcels under $800 through customs without fuss. Postal operators across Europe, faced with no clear instructions on how to handle duties, have thrown up their hands and stopped sending business parcels to America altogether.
That includes our bulk subscriptions. The carefully bundled copies of The Recycler headed for U.S. readers have started coming straight back to us with a cheery German label that reads: “Postal traffic with the destination country is currently suspended.” Translation: politics got in the way of common sense. And of course, they don’t refund the postage.
To our U.S. bulk subscribers: apologies. We would rather you had your print copy in hand, but until the powers that be get their act together, or swallow a common sense pill, we can not push paper, in bulk, across the Atlantic.
The good news? Single issues sent by regular mail are ok.
More good news? Every issue is still available in digital format, instantly, without waiting for politicians or postal organisations to agree on who does what. You can read the full edition online here while the physical copies sit in limbo.
We’ll resume bulk mailings the moment the logjam clears. Until then, chalk it up to proof (if anyone needed it) that the imaging sector isn’t the only one hobbled by decisions made in offices far removed from the shop floor.
