The other day, I swung by my neighborhood drug store and purchased a pack of gum. Nothing expensive, just your normal five stick pack of gum. It cost less than a dollar.
But when I paid for it, I was given my change along with a paper receipt that was at least a half a foot long! A SIX INCH PIECE OF PAPER FOR A PACK OF GUM! On the receipt was a record of my purchase, which is critical in case I decide to return a stick or two, along with numerous messages which I really didn't read. In fact, the store has a policy to make sure every single purchase, regardless of the cost of the transaction, comes along with a receipt. So, being the packaging dork that I am, I stood to the side of the register and watched the next several customers go through. They all received receipts, longer than mine, and just about every one of them simply put the receipt in their bag or in the garbage can right outside your door.
I wonder, with multiple locations, how much paper is wasted? This drug store isn't the only retailer that does this, I see it a lot and in several industries, including major retailers, restaurants, etc... How many people really read the messages? Isn't their a way to reduce the amount of paper used?! Maybe this is silly, some of you probably think I am making a big issue out of a small one? But think of all the transactions, all the paper.... I have to think it adds up to some extent?
I actually do take my receipts home, and in the case of my gum receipt, I assumed I wouldn't need to return it and threw the receipt in my green recycle bin. Yet, I wonder how many of those rather useless pieces of paper end up in a landfill? I hope that last piece of gum doesn't taste bad because I don't have my half foot receipt!
Although receipts likely contribute a very small part to the waste stream, I find myself obsessively recycling all of them whenever I can, and feeling somewhat sheepish and geeky when I do so, precisely because the environmental impact of this action has to be pretty small.
It does seem like a ridiculous amount of paper, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who is obsessive and compulsive over this!
I have often opted out of taking a receipt at the gas pump because they do give me the option. I will have documentation on my credit card statement, so why take a receipt I will simply recycle or possibly lose?
Don't forget that companies are now printing out coupons with the receipts based upon your purchases.
The other addition that seems sometimes odd is the need to sign a paper copy for the credit card. A number of stores are going to all electronic where I sign a pressure sensitive pad. Sometimes I use the pad for swiping the card, but still sign a paper copy. Some stores don't require signing for anything under $25. Some I would have to sign for the pack of gum. I'm sure the merchant accounts have some say in this. I understand the need to protect the merchant for the purchase, but I wonder in this day and age, why do I have to sign a piece of paper? Is it not more cost effective to have these signatures electronically stored for the unlikely event of having to prove the person did make the purchase?
I agree completely, both from a waste perspective and a consumer perspective. I recently purchased a single item from a grocery store, and my receipt was longer than a foot. Then if I decide that I may want to return the item, I have to physically file the receipt. I would much rather have a receipt e-mailed to me (U-Haul does this very effectively), perhaps to a dedicated receipts e-mail address, which I could then store electronically. I would also love secure software that would pull my e-reciepts, add them up, and analyze them to give an accurate, itemized account of my spending that I could use for monthly budgeting.
What a humorous and true article ~
It's funny to see that other people do the same as me!
I did a post too on recycling receipts here, check it out if you like:
http://vegliving.info/2009/08/11/green-living-recycle-that-receipt/ [15]
Thank you!
Brian