DMM Revision: Mailing of Cremated Remains

Effective September 4, 2012, the Postal Service™ will revise Mailing Standards of the United States, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM^®) to add new section 601.12.9.3 that will align with existing requirements relating to the mailing of cremated remains provided in other postal publications.

This revision is being made to provide an additional ref­erence for customers and retail postal employees who are seeking instruction for the mailing of cremated remains. In the past, these mailing standards were provided in section 452.2 of Publication 52, Hazardous, Restricted and Perish­able Mail. With this change the mailing standards for cre­mated remains will be provided in both publications.

Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM)

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600 Basic Standards for All Mailing Services

601 Mailability

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12.0 Other Restricted and Nonmailable Matter

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12.9 Liquids and Powders

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[Add a new 12.9.3 as follows:]

12.9.3 Cremated Remains

Human ashes (cremated remains) are permitted to be mailed provided they are in a strong and durable container and packaged as required in 9.2. The identity of the con­tents should be marked on the address side. Mailpieces sent to domestic addresses must be sent via Express Mail^® or Registered Mail^® service.

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We will incorporate these revisions into the next monthly update of the online DMM available via Postal Explorer^® at http://pe.usps.com.

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Pricing, 8-23-12