Can you recycle receipts? In short, most cannot be recycled. Here’s why you shouldn’t put them in your recycling bin, and what to do with them instead.
If you’ve ever found yourself looking at a stack of crumpled receipts you no longer need, wondering if they should go in the recycling bin or your general waste bin, then you’re not alone. Receipts are a common part of everyday life, but there’s A LOT of confusion around whether they can actually be recycled.
The truth is, most receipts should not be recycled. Here’s why, and what you can do instead.
Why Can’t Most Receipts Be Recycled?
The main reason that most receipts can’t be recycled is because of what they are made of.
Most receipts – including the ones you get from pretty much all supermarkets and high street shops – are made from thermal paper. This is a special type of paper that reacts with heat to display text, rather than using ink on standard paper.
To make this work, the paper is coated with chemicals such as Bisphenol A (BPA), which is also used to make certain plastics and resins. While this makes printing quick and efficient, it also means the paper isn’t suitable for standard recycling processes.
This is because when thermal paper enters the recycling stream, it can contaminate other paper products – sometimes introducing traces of BPA into items made from recycled paper.
How To Identify A Thermal Receipt
Wondering how to identify a thermal receipt? Thermal receipts look and feel shiny, and not like regular paper. When exposed to heat, they immediately turn black.
Standard receipts, on the other hand, feel more matte and slightly rough and don’t change colour when exposed to heat. These types of receipts can be recycled alongside your paper and cardboard.
I’ve found that, so far, most post office receipts are made from paper and, therefore, can be recycled. I’ve also found that quite a few small independent shops also use paper receipts.
Need a visual? Here are two receipts – one thermal and one paper – that I exposed to heat from my straighteners for just one second.
You’ll see that the receipt on the left (from Lush) immediately turned black where heat was applied. This means it’s a thermal receipt, and cannot be recycled. Meanwhile, the Post Office receipt on the right has not changed colour, so it’s made of standard paper and can be recycled.
If you’re in doubt, a quick heat test makes the difference clear immediately. If you don’t have straighteners, try quickly pressing the receipt against a warm radiator or another hot surface (but NOT a naked flame!). If it changes colour, it’s a thermal receipt, and not recyclable.
How To Dispose Of Receipts
As I mentioned, standard receipts can go in your recycling bin. But don’t recycle your thermal receipts. These can contaminate products made from recycled paper, such as toilet paper, with BPA.
And don’t compost them either. Composting will also contaminate your soil with BPA. Whilst research into the effects of BPA is ongoing, signs point to BPA having adverse health effects.
It is frustrating, but the only way to dispose of your receipt is to put it into your general waste bin.
If you’re worried about identity theft, you can shred the receipts before binning them. Alternatively, you can heat them up – either with an iron, straighteners, or just sitting them on your radiator – to black out the receipt before binning it.
Why Do Shops Use Thermal Receipts If They Can’t Be Recycled?
Like most things in life, I suspect the reason that shops use thermal receipts over printed ones is that it all comes down to money and convenience.
If they use thermal receipts, then shops don’t need to buy separate ink and till rolls. A thermal printer is probably lower maintenance than a printed receipt system, which has more moving parts that can go wrong.
How Can I Avoid Receipts?
It can be tricky to avoid receipts. In the UK, some shops offer to email your receipt to you. This is a good paperless and waste-free option. However, I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly found that uptake on this is patchy.
In some shops, you can decline a receipt, but it isn’t always that simple.
According to a recent report on racial biases, 38% of people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups said they had been wrongly suspected of shoplifting in the last five years. Black people, and Black women, in particular, were more likely to be wrongly suspected. This is compared with 14% of white people who were wrongly suspected – a massive 24% difference.
As a society, we have a long way to go before we can blindly throw around advice like “Just don’t take a receipt”.
And racial bias aside – in some shops, you can decline a receipt. But frustratingly, the receipt is still automatically printed – the cashier just pops it in the bin.
So, What Is The Answer?
There’s no perfect solution here. In the long run, the biggest shift will need to come from retailers moving away from thermal paper altogether. Until then, shopping less and only buying what we really need is a practical place to start. I’m a broken record on this one, I know, but it really is the answer to most of our climate-related woes.
Want To Go Deeper?
Check out my guide to 13 other sneaky household items that aren’t recyclable. There are heaps of surprises in there.
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