| One of my favorite daily reads is Umbra who | | | | Developed as an estrogen replacement, BPA is widely |
| dispenses advice on Grist to readers with | | | | used to line metal cans and in thousands of other |
| environmental dilemmas. It was through reading her | | | | household products, including baby bottles, eyeglasses |
| response to a question about receipt paper that I learnt | | | | and CDs. It has been detected in nearly all Americans |
| that receipt paper is non-recyclable. After reading a | | | | tested. BPA is an endocrine disruptor, which can mimic |
| Review on about excess receipt lengths, I decided to | | | | the body's own hormones and may lead to negative |
| investigate some more. | | | | health effects especially when exposure occurs in |
| Here is the environmental scoop on receipts: | | | | early development. Many states have banned BPA in |
| 1. According to allEtronic, it takes approximately 15 | | | | infant formula containers, baby bottles, and sippy cups. |
| trees to produce a single ton of paper. Receipt paper | | | | Earlier this year, The Endocrine Society released a |
| demands in the US are 640,000 tons per year. This | | | | scientific statement expressing concern over current |
| equates to 9,600,000 trees cut down each year just to | | | | human exposure to BPA. Research has linked BPA to |
| produce paper receipts. Another organization | | | | prostate and breast cancer, obesity and diabetes, |
| NoMoPaper reports 2 million trees are cut down for | | | | early puberty ovarian cysts and uterine fibroids, |
| our annual receipt consumption - regardless of who is | | | | reduced fertility and miscarriage. |
| right, the number is staggering. You can watch the | | | | I think everyone can understand the need to stop |
| NoMoPaper video here. | | | | exposure of BPA to young children and in our food |
| If receipts included only transactional information, how | | | | containers, but receipts? Apparently so, Science News |
| many trees could we save? The recent Review for | | | | reported a concern about this last month in an |
| Sears reported that only 21% of the receipt (7 inches | | | | interview with Scientist John Warner. |
| out of 33 inches) was transactional and the remainder | | | | The jury might still be out on BPA on receipts but I am |
| promotional. If this is true of all receipts, we could save | | | | convinced that shorter or no receipts are the better |
| over 1.5 Million trees a year by including only | | | | way to go. I am advocating to keep the receipts to |
| transactional information (according to the more | | | | transactional information only! |
| conservative NoMoPaper estimate). Even if on | | | | What you can do:o Forgo the paper and subscribe to |
| average, only 25% of receipts had promotional | | | | electronic receipts through companies such as |
| information, that is still 500,000 trees saved. | | | | TransactionTree and allEtronic;o Ask retail stores not |
| 2. Thermal paper is not recyclable, therefore all of it | | | | to give you receipts;o Use to educate those |
| goes directly to landfills - that is 2 million trees a year in | | | | companies that do provide paper receipts and |
| landfills! | | | | advocate for change. |
| 3. Thermal paper is coated with BPA (bisphenol-A). | | | | |