At the average rate of decline (constant ~4.5% decrease in mail delivered per year), it should reach 10% of 2008's usage by 2050. This obviously does not reflect reality, and it's just a napkin calculation.
Curious to know how much of that is spam. Since the advent of email, nearly everything that ends in my own mailbox are bills and statements, government-related correspondence, the occasional e-commerce related package and (shit tons of) spam. If the two former went full electronic, there would be very little point in having a mailbox at all -- unless you actually read your spam.
Little known fact: almost all of the spam (at least in my area) is not postal delivery. Private couriers deliver it. You can affix a "pas de pub" (no ads) sticker to your mailbox, and it stops. (It's possible the post also stops some spam delivery with this notice)
Canada Post delivers junk mail to my private mailbox. Changed my bills to online (for those I could) and posted letter-stickers to my mailbox saying "No Admail Please" and now I get 0 spam mailings. Also opted out of CMA marketing, including opting out former residents addresses.
I find it amusing that email spam is such an issue for people, but physical mail and SMS spam is not. At least in South Africa, I really can't find a way to report SMS spam so I just keep on receiving it. And who the hell would I have to speak to in order to stop receiving shit in my physical mailbox
http://i.imgur.com/OAul7h2.png
At the average rate of decline (constant ~4.5% decrease in mail delivered per year), it should reach 10% of 2008's usage by 2050. This obviously does not reflect reality, and it's just a napkin calculation.