‘Hold onto your receipt’ and ‘Keep all receipts’ were almost catch cries back when Australians over 50 were young.
There was good reason for that. Two actually. Firstly, if anything went wrong with a product you’d purchased, getting a repair, refund or replacement usually required a receipt.
Secondly, they were important for maximising your refund when tax return time came around. Especially if you were unlucky enough to get audited.
While such events may require a receipt in certain circumstances today, an electronic version will usually suffice. And that’s a good thing, because almost every physical receipt you are given these days is doing harm to the environment.
And the extent of that harm has been revealed to be far greater than almost anyone had previously imagined. That’s the conclusion drawn in a new report released by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
The analysis revealed that Australia prints an astonishing 10.6 billion paper receipts each year. On the one hand, that sounds like a lot. On the other, they’re so small, surely even 10.6 billion of them can’t do too much harm?
Wrong, it seems. These receipts are typically coated with toxic chemicals, rendering them non-recyclable and contributing significantly to environmental damage. But there’s more to it than just the receipts themselves.
Hold all receipts – digitally
The study also looked into the supply chain impact of paper receipts, and made some alarming discoveries. The production of these receipts has a huge environmental impact.
It requires 150,462 trees, 1.56 million litres of water, 96,227 tonnes of carbon, and 104.7 million kilowatts of energy annually to produce all 10.6 billion receipts.
If these receipts were delivered in digital form, these numbers would be very different. According to the findings, this would consume no trees or water and only 7.193 million kilowatts of energy. Moreover, it would generate just 3037 tonnes of carbon.
That’s much better for everyone, except perhaps those who produce and sell that thermal paper.
From a first-hand perspective, I can also think of another huge advantage. As a hoarder who lacks organisational discipline, I’ll often shove a receipt into my wallet and forget it.
It might be months before I eventually clear out that wallet or search of it. Only then do I discover that the ink has faded to the point of being illegible.
Solutions
Apart from the obvious steps that we consumers can take – saying ‘no’ to receipts – larger scale measures are being taken. The report produced by UTS was funded by the CSIRO in conjunction with Aussie start-up company Slyp.
Slyp was born of one person’s ‘light-bulb’ moment. Co-founder and CEO Paul Weingarth purchased a chainsaw from his local hardware store and “received a 50cm long receipt”. But it wasn’t just the length of the receipt that startled Mr Weingarth.
“The cashier asked me to take a photo of [it] because it was going to fade over time,” he said. “It just made no sense to me.” From this seed of an idea, the ‘Slyp Smart Receipt’ was born.
Recognising that receipts are still important for things such as identifying purchased items and their cost, the Slyp Smart Receipt is delivered electronically to your smartphone.
Toxic paper problem solved. I have made recent purchases at a large pharmacy chain and have been offered such smart receipts. If I feel I might need one, I’ll gladly accept that offer.
My wallet doesn’t require cleaning out as often as it once did. And I know that I, along with innovators such as Paul Weingarth, have done one more little thing to save our environment.
Are you a receipt hoarder? Would you be happy to receive yours electronically? Let us know via the comments section below.
Also read: Is it better for the environment to buy your Christmas gifts online or from a shop?
There’s another very easy way to fix this. The main reason I ask for a receipt is that except for the major supermarket checkouts, the amount entered into the register is frequently hidden to the customer and you nearly need to climb over the counter to see the price displayed that you are being charged. If they hide the amount charged, why would you trust them?
Years ago in the days of Cabcharge a driver added a zero to the price I entered into the cab docket. So $49 became $490, some trip from Melbourne city to Tullamarine! It took months to get the matter resolved.
Cosmo has a very good point you go through the checkout at Aldi and you don’t see the prices as they are rang up because you have to move around to where your items come out so you can pack them as they pass through the scanner also with Aldi receipts are that faded you can hardly read them.
The problem doesn’t lie with the issuing of too many receipts resulting in the destruction of millions of trees. The problem doesn’t lie with climate change or so called climate change which has been going on for time in memorial. The problem the world is facing and facing for the first time is overpopulation. Deal with this problem and the others solve themselves. The world population needs to be reduced to no more than 1.5 billion people and remain at that number for this planet to continue to exist. This can be easily accomplished with great effort and hard decisions by the appropriate government of the world. Jacka.
As almost aleays I agree with Jacka. There are countries which have more than quadrupled their population in our lifetime which are claiming they aren’t contributing to global warming or habitat destruction. Every country which relies on food aid is breeding like flies. Let’s insist on population management to receive aid.
I collect all my receipts and put them in a small plastic bag in my desk for the month and then check them against purchases and expenditure on my credit cards before the credit card payment is made at the end of the month. Then if they all check out, I keep those for items that may need proof of purchase- like warrantied equipment, household items- usually only one or two a month. The rest I shred and put in the paper bin as requested,
Over the years I have found several mistakes, one for nearly $100 and gone back to the seller to complain.
I have tried using electronic receipts and checking them against the credit card list is much more laborious and time consuming.
Yes I collect all our receipts and check them off to the credit cards. Just last month there was a “phishing” amount of $2.00 followed by a larger amount of $204.00 three days later. Just happened to look at the credit card transactions and onto CBA immediately. They had suspended all the transactions over the 3 days, thankfully. The “phishing” amounts have been refunded but we needed to get new credit cards.
And yes, I also keep all receipts that may need proof of purchase.
Let us know via the comments section below — Is written at the bottom of all articles you read on YLC. That is if they open, the links to them don’t say ‘OOPS’ or ‘no puppies here.’
Why have it?
Authors of articles ‘never’ respond, neither does YLC to comments.
SURPRIZE me Andrew.
There would be at least 200 stores for each 1 that currently supplies digital receipts. In order to receive a digital receipt, you most likely will have to have the store’s app. I have too many already.
A far better option would be having receipts from sustainable products such as Green Grass, Hemp, Recycled Cotton, Bamboo, Seed, Sugarcane & Reclaimed Chaff.
I tried refusing receipts today to save the world. What happened, they screwed up the receipts and threw them in the waste bin.
Receipts should be simple straight to the point, without advertisements and unnecessary add ons of huge widths and lengths of negative space of paper. This will halve the problem. Secondly the cashier sometimes first prints the receipt and quickly rips it out to through it in the bin before you remind them “can l please have the printed receipt”. Then realises they forgot and prints out another one.
Otherwise digital receipts are fine if you do actually or eventually receive them via text message or emails. But not everyone carries a smart phone.