Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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MAILING LABEL AND WRAPPER FOR RECYCLING A BOOK
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention: The present invention
relates to a method and apparatus for recycling printed and bound
articles such as a books, catalogs, magazines, telephone
directories and the like which have a binding along one edge for
securing pages between facing and backing sheets. More,
particularly, the present invention relates to a label and
wrapping construction for spanning the thickness of such printed
and bound article for adherence to areas of the facing and
backing sheets to establish a stabilized configuration to such an
article and supply necessary information for transportation in
commerce by the United States Postal Service, United Parcel
Service or other common carrier.
2. Description of the Prior Art: Various forms of
mailing wrappers are known in the art for the shipment of
articles including labeling for return shipments. While not all
inclusive such shipping labeling for packages are disclosed in
United States Patent Nos. 1,071,227, 1,148,929, 1,670,371,
1,710,075 and 4,201,332. These known forms of mailing wrappers
are unsuitable for recycling printed and bound articles such as
telephone books and particularly because of a failure to solve
problems arising with the transportation and handling of such
articles for a recycling process. The recycling process for
waste paper, unlike many other articles suitable for recycling,
is degraded when the paper is allowed to become contaminated with
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water. Also, the increased weight of the water adds to the
shipping cost and depending on the particular recycling process,
the water contamination may render the paper unsuitable for
recycling. While the present invention is particularly useful to
recycle articles having the dimensional characteristics of
telephone directories having a thousand or more pages, it is
equally applicable to other articles of a book-like form such as
catalogues resembling telephone directories with regard to their
size and multiplicity of pages.
Curbside collection of wastepaper particularly large
dense articles such as telephone directories often occurs only
after the article becomes saturated with rain water. Often, the
article is placed at an outdoor collection site many hours and
sometimes days before the collection occurs. When a water
saturated collection of directories is added to a collection of
dry directories, the measure content of the combined mass
equalizes so that the combined mass becomes contaminated with
water. Measures such as the use of the outer plastic wrap are
unacceptable because the plastic is a contaminant to the
recycling process even though contamination by water is
prevented. Moreover local campaigns to collect telephone
directories for recycling often meet with apathy of the home
owners and the inability to protect the collected materials from
detrimental contamination causes poor results to such collection
companies. Apathy also exists in drop-off programs which are
inconvenient to the customer and often the customer fails to
2162~3
deliver telephone directories for recycling at a specified time
and place. Apathy often causes customers to simply conclude that
it is simply too inconvenient and confusion sometimes occurs when
competing people or organizations participate in a collection of
the telephone directories. As a result many tons of recyclable
telephone directories are not recycled but become part of garbage
in landfills. Short comings of collection companies is apparent
from a report in Bio Cycle, January 1993 issue wherein it is
reported that in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania through the first
nine months of 1992 that 8,828 tons of Bell Atlantic phone
directories were distributed in Pennsylvania. In an effort to
recycle the old ones, Bell, in conjunction with 27
municipalities, initiated collection programs that resulted in
the recovery of 396 tons of directories, about 4.5 percent of the
total distribution.
A need, therefore, exists for a more affective method
and apparatus to facilitate recycling of articles such as
telephone directories that will avoid user apathy to ensure
participation in sufficient numbers to exceed mandates and in a
manner without requiring expenditures for extensive collection at
curb sites and minimize exposure of the articles to the elements
such as water which otherwise contaminates and renders the
articles unsuitable for recycling.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention
to provide a method and apparatus for recycling articles
particularly books such as telephone directories that will
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overcome the shortcomings and disadvantages of known existing
recycling programs as discussed herein before.
It is a further object of the present invention to
provide a method and mailing wrapper for moving in commerce
articles particularly books such as telephone directories by a
common carrier to a pre-addressed designated area for collection
under protected conditions provided by the common carrier
suitable to maintain the paper content of the articles
unsaturated with moisture and thereby facilitate processing in a
recycling facility.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention there is provided a
mailing wrapper for recycling an article such as a telephone
directory having a binding along one edge to adhere a
multiplicity of pages between cover and backing sheets, the
mailing wrapper comprising a plurality of binder straps each
having a length sufficient to span a thickness defined by a
multiplicity of pages, the binder straps further including
adhesive attachment areas at each of opposite terminal end
portions thereof for adhering to the cover backing sheets of the
book at each of a front edge which is opposite the binding and at
top and bottom edges which extend between the binding and the
front edge, at least one of the adhesive attachment areas
defining a label extending along at least one of the cover and
the backing sheets and having a surface capable of presenting
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pre-printed indicia including addressee, shipping instructions
and payment authorization.
There is also provided according to the present
invention a method for recycling an article such as a telephone
directory having a binding along one edge securing a multiplicity
of pages between cover and backing sheets, said method including
the steps of supplying a mailing wrapper having a plurality of
edge binding straps each with an adhesive backing for adherence
to said facing and backing sheets, said mailing wrapper further
including at least one attachment area which is sufficiently
large and contains a shipping address and payment authorization
indica, binding a front edge portion of said article which is
opposite said binding and binding each of a portion of a top and
bottom edge of said article with said edge binding straps to form
a dimensionally stable recyclable article, shipping the
dimensionally stable recyclable article by a common carrier to a
designated site for forming a recycle supply, and recycling the
supply of the dimensionally stable recyclable articles arriving
at said designated site.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention will be more fully understood
when the following description is read in light of the
accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a flow diagram the use of the mailing label
and wrapper for recycling telephone directory according to the
present invention;
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Figure 2 is a plan view of a mailing label according a
preferred embodiment of the present invention which is also
useful to carry out the method of the present invention;
Figure 3 is a sectional view taken along lines III-III
of Figure 2; and
Figure 4 is a plan view of the back face of the mailing
wrapper shown in Figure 2 containing instructions and
illustrations for the use of the mailing wrapper.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED
EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
In Figure 1 there is illustrated by the schematic
diagram as an initial step of the present invention the supply of
a mailing label and wrapper to customer which can be by a
separate transaction as through the postal service or by an
insert with the deliver of a new telephone directory forming a
replacement for the directory to undergo recycling. The customer
following instructions found on the mailing label and wrapper
binds the refuge telephone directory with label and wrapper for
recycling. The recyclable telephone directory is notably
characterized by its dimensionally stable condition. Thereafter,
the bound and labeled is delivered to a common carrier which can
be by placing it in the mail box when the carrier is the United
States Postal Service or notifying a carrier such as United
States Parcel Service of a package for pickup. The common
carrier then receives the article and delivers the article in an
ordinary course of commerce to the recipient identified on the
label which most typically will be a recycle center. Thereafter,
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the collection of recycle articles at the recycle center are
processed such as by bulk transfer to some distant recycle site
e.g. a paper mill or other waste paper recycle facility.
In Figures 2, 3 and 4 there is illustrated a mailing
wrapper 10 that is a composite of a backing sheet 12 releasably
adhered to an adhesive layer 14 that is carried on a web 16.
Adhesive layer 14 is preferably pressure sensitive. Adhesive
layer 14 and web 16 form a substrate that is protectively covered
by the releasable backing sheet 12 which protective covers the
adhesive layer to prevent unwanted adhesion with objections
during the supply of the mailing label to the consumer until the
time of actual usage of the label. The web 16 is severed as by
die cutting along parting lines 18 and 20 to thereby define a
plurality of binder straps 21, 22 and 23. The binder straps have
a length sufficient to fulfill three functions which are a
length, indicated by reference numeral 24, sufficient to span the
thickness defined by the multiplicity of pages of a book such as
a telephone directory. Typically, for example, telephone
directories consist of between 800 and 900 pages per inch of
thickness. The second and third functions of the length of the
binder straps are to define adhesive adherence areas 25 and 26
which together with the tack and other adherence characteristics
of the adhesive layer 14 are sufficient to adhere with long
continued integrity the binder straps to the facing sheet and
backing sheet of the book. It is to be understood that the
broken lines identified by reference numerals 27 and 28 are
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arbitrary demarkation lines that have been chosen to form the
transition between the book thickness and the adhesive areas on
the cover and backing sheets respectively. By way of a specific
example, a telephone directory measuring 9 inches wide, 10 3/4
inches high and 2 inches thick which is a length of each binder
straps 21-23 of about 8 1/2 inches. The width of binder straps
21 and 23 is narrow preferably about 1 1/2 inches each as
compared to a relatively wide binder strap 22 at about 11 inches.
The large width to binder strap 22 insures the presentation of a
surface area bearing printed preferably pre-printed indicia
including an addressee area 22A; method of payment area 22B; and
payment computation area 22C and return delivery identification
area 22D.
The binder straps 21-23 are installed on a telephone
directory preferably by providing appropriate instructions
suitably printed on the back faces of the mailing wrapper as
shown typically in Figure 3. As can be seen, the instructions
direct that binder straps 21 and 23 are placed so that areas 24
span the thickness of the book at its opposite edges 30 and 31
which extend between a binding at 32 along the back edge of the
book and the front edge 33 of the book. Binder strap 22 is
operatively adhered to the book by arranging that area 24
traverse that the thickness of the book along the front edge of
the book, generally midway between the top and bottom edges of
the book and with areas 25 and 26 adhesively attached to the face
sheet 34 and back sheet 35. The straps operatively function to
`~ ~16~543
prevent entanglement with other merchandise during shipping by a
common carrier to a designated collection site for recycling of
the book. Particularly, for example, in one aspect of the
present invention it is convenient that the mailing wrapper as
disclosed herein above will be used for the delivery of telephone
books by the postal service to a designated addressee which
identifies the collection site. For this purpose it is necessary
to ensure that other mail cannot intermingle and become entrapped
within the pages of the telephone directory. The width of bind
straps 21, 22 and 23 is of critical importance for primarily
unwanted interleaved relation of objects which are foreign to the
telephone directory, book or other article bearing the mailing
label of the present invention. The length of the exposed edges
of pages of the directory exposed between binder straps must be
equal for example 4 inches or less to avoid retention of objects,
such as post cards which measures about 3 1/2 inches by 5 1/2
inches. Also it is necessary to present a dimensionally stable
package to enable handling by postal employees. Telephone
directories frequently are relatively thick, 2 inches or greater,
thus a high unit mass per unit ratio. The top and bottom binder
straps prevent the fanning of the pages of the directory which is
allowed because the hinding can rotate to the plane of either of
the backing sheet for facing sheet. It is to be understood that
common carriers other than the United States Postal System may be
utilized to receive and deliver telephone directories to a
designated site for the recycling thereof. At the destination
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site specified to the common carrier by mailing label suitable
containers or storage facilities are provided that must offer
protection from contamination during inclement weather. The
designated collection site can be the facility of a paper
recycling center or a transfer site for bulk shipments to a
recycling center or to the actual recycle facility.
While the present invention has been described in
connection with the preferred embodiments of the various figures,
it is to be understood that other similar embodiments may be used
or modifications and additions may be made to the described
embodiment for performing the same function of the present
invention without deviating therefrom. Therefore, the present
invention should not be limited to any single embodiment, but
rather construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the
recitation of the appended claims.
