Is Receipt Paper.. Paper?

For those in the retail and hospitality industries it might shock you that receipt rolls are coated in BPA! It’s the plastic component that has a similar effect on the body as estrogen and is linked to cancer, pre-mature puberty, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and more 😬😬😬

Here at Crushes, we’re on a journey to become zero waste; we’ve eliminated plastic packaging on our cards and prints, we’ve changed Crushes jewellery packaging to be plantable seed paper, there’s no bubble wrap in sight, and our office is even collecting soft plastics to be recycled properly. We looked at our bins to see where we could improve and we saw the backs of stickers (we found some recyclable ones for our next order) and receipts.

This made us think, “is receipt paper...paper?”. The BPA makes it unrecyclable as the paper is coated in plastic (!!!) You also can’t send it to landfill or put it in the compost as it makes the soil extremely toxic and the BPA could rise to surface waters... heck, you can’t even burn it as it would make the BPA inhale-able. Only touching a receipt for five seconds will transfer a significant amount of BPA to your finger.

We found some BPA-Free receipt rolls for printers and eftpos machines (from OfficeMax and Tillman.co.nz) because we believe that any waste that comes about because of our business is OUR responsibility. This is what every sustainable business should believe about all aspects of their business too, it shouldn’t be on the consumer.

If you are in retail or hospo, go tell your managers! Wash your hands after handling these nasty receipts until you can change over, go digital if possible!

Please share any thoughts or comments below in the comments!