Skip the slip
Published: 16 Nov 2021
In the USA, there has been a successful Skip the Slip campaign in California which introduced a Bill that would mandate retailers to offer digital receipts to customers as the default option.
Waste of paper
Every year, UK retailers hand out around 11.2 billion till receipts, which cost at least £32 million to make. Most won’t be made from recycled paper so it would equate to around 87, 000 trees being cut down each year just for receipts!
Worldwide, this escalates to around 300 billion paper receipts being produced every year, consuming 25 million trees, 22 million barrels of oil and 18bn litres of water.
Uses harmful chemicals
As well as using up a surprising amount of paper, receipts use chemicals called Bisphenols, a group of synthetic chemicals used to make some plastics, and thermal paper for tickets and receipts.
The vast majority of receipts are printed on so-called thermal paper, which isn’t recyclable and is coated with a substance called bisphenol A (BPA) or its harmful substitute BPS. Bisphenol A (BPA) is manufactured at a rate of around 2.7 million tonnes each year.
These have both been banned from other plastic products, such as sippy cups and water bottles. They can disrupt the hormone balance in the body, causing infertility and other problems. Research suggests that both substances accumulate in the body.
Here’s a handy list of major supermarkets to check how they are doing, as well as a nice graphic to explain how the chemicals get into us and our environment.
Take action!
Try to get in the habit of saying ‘NO’ to receipts when you are out and about. If your favourite local shop or café still gives out receipts without asking customers first, maybe you can ask them to change.
Start saying ‘NO thanks’ to receipts you don’t actually need and ask your local shops and cafes to move away from offering receipts as standard. Ideally receipts should only be printed and given out if the customer specifically asks for one.