Every year, British retailers hand out 11.2 billion receipts — that’s 7300 tons of paper — at a cost of nearly $40 million. Most of these receipts end up in the landfill because they cannot be recycled as a result of them being printed on shiny paper and containing other substances.
In a bid to curb this overwhelming amount of waste, Wetherspoons, one of the largest companies in the UK’s hospitality industry, has decided to stop using receipts after customers complained about the waste of paper. Customers can still request them but will not be given them as a matter of course.
Wetherspoons is not the only business that has taken such an initiative. In recent years, shops have been gradually reducing their use of paper too. Clothes stores including Topshop, Urban Outfitters, Gap, Clarks, New Look, and others, have all begun offering e-receipts as an alternative.
