Where should you discard a till receipt: in the rubbish or the recycle bin? This is not a trick question. The vast majority of receipts are printed on so-called thermal paper, which is simply not recyclable, just like most disposable coffee cups, yogurt pots and other packaging that looks like paper but has to go to landfill.
Every year, UK retailers hand out around 11.2 billion till receipts, which cost at least £32 million to make. Even if you don’t need a receipt, chances are it’ll be printed anyway and goes into the trash. The whole process can be wasteful.
Thermal paper receipts are the shiny ones, which are fairly standard both at supermarkets and smaller stores. The problem: thermal paper is coated with a substance called bisphenol A (BPA), or its lesser known but also harmful substitute BPS; both react to the heat from a printer head to produce the numbers and letters on the paper. If you scratch a receipt and leave a dark mark, it contains BPA and BPS.
BPA and BPS have both been banned from other plastic products, such as sippy cups and water bottles, because they are harmful when ingested in large amounts. Among other things, they can disrupt the hormone balance in the body, causing infertility and other problems. Research suggests that both substances linger in the body for months, which means that mere traces can accumulate and do plenty of harm. They can be absorbed through the skin, so to avoid harmful health effects, you should use gloves when handling BPA and BPS products or at least scrub your hands vigorously. And, of course, thermal paper can’t be recycled.