Why You Shouldn't Recycle Receipts | HuffPost Impact

If youre a frequent shopper at one of CVSs 10,000 U.S. locations, youre familiar with the extended whine of the cash register as it spews out a seemingly endless scroll consisting mainly of coupons. People use the Twitter hashtag #CVSreceipts to post pictures holding up receipts as tall as they are after buying one or two items from the store. Late night host Jimmy Kimmel obsesses about CVS receipts on his show and once asked President Barack Obama to do something about them .

The average CVS receipt is 2.5 feet long, according to research from the environmental nonprofit Green America and many stretch more than 5 or 6 feet. Most end up in the trash.

In 2017 Green America launched its Skip the Slip campaign to pressure retailers to reduce waste from paper receipts. CVS quickly emerged as a key target.

There were already a lot of folks really eager to see CVS take action to reduce its waste from thermal paper because its receipts were so, for lack of a better term, meme-worthy, said Beth Porter, Green Americas climate and recycling director.

Thousands signed a petition urging CVS to do something about its wasteful receipts, and the company agreed to work with Green America on a plan.

I made a super quick stop to buy two things fast at @cvspharmacy. Here's my #CVSreceipt. Mind you, I'm 6'2\"#CVSreceipts pic.twitter.com/ZTvRJT6iDt

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I made a super quick stop to buy two things fast at @cvspharmacy . Here's my #CVSreceipt . Mind you, I'm 6'2"#CVSreceipts pic.twitter.com/ZTvRJT6iDt
Ky Ekinci (@KyEkinci) June 3, 2019

CVS says it shortened the length of its receipts and enrolled more than 1 million people in its digital receipt program last year by prompting customers to opt in at checkout and encouraging online signups. As a result, the company saved 48 million yards of receipt paper. Thats about 27,000 miles. The circumference of the Earth is 25,000 miles.

Though receipts represent less than 1% of the paper used in the U.S., the environmental cost is far from negligible. Green America estimates that 3 million trees and nearly 9 billion gallons of water are used to make receipts every year in this country, and the process emits as much greenhouse gas as 400,000 cars. All for scraps of paper that people often throw out or lose almost immediately.

Most receipt printers use heat instead of ink, which requires paper with a heat-sensitive thermal coating. That vast majority of the time, this coating is made with bisphenol A (BPA) or bisphenol S (BPS), two chemicals commonly found in plastic, which are known endocrine disruptors. While theres a lack of conclusive data on how these chemicals affect human health, animal studies show that BPA can impact fertility and neural development and increase the risk of some cancers. BPS is used as an alternative to BPA, but research suggests it has the same hazardous potential .

People are exposed to BPA from countless sources every day; research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that 93% of people have traces of the chemical in their urine. It can leach from food containers into food, which is why many plastic bottles are marketed as BPA-free and manufacturers are barred from using BPA in baby bottles. It can also rub off on your fingers when you handle receipts. For most people thats just one of who-knows-how-many minor exposures but people who work in retail handing out receipts all day may have 30% more BPA in their systems . The European Union banned BPA in thermal paper at the start of this year.