“Do you need a receipt?” If you’ve shopped in store before, you might have had this question posed to you, or noticed the addition of our new secondary display at the cashier counter in the recent months. Since our opening, we’ve made the conscious choice not to automatically issue a printed receipt with every purchase (unless upon request) because most paper receipts are not recyclable. Most modern day receipt printers use thermal papers which only require heat from a printer head to make letters and numbers appear; no ink is used. However, because of this, thermal papers contain a chemical called bisphenol-A (or sometimes bisphenol S) that cannot be easily removed during the recycling process. Even if you are not too concerned about the waste generated (think about how short lived a receipt is, really) or the non-recyclability of thermal paper, how about this? BPA and BPS on thermal papers are known hormone disruptors. They can affect brain development, heart, lung and other organ health. These toxic chemicals can be transferred from fingers to the mouth via food, or absorbed directly through the skin when held. So when you dump a thermal paper receipt into the blue bin, you contaminate other paper items in the recycling stream, which often get made into items such as facial tissue, kitchen towels or shopping bags. This means coming into closer contact with BPA/BPS whenever we grab a receipt or use a piece of tissue made from recycled paper. Make a conscious choice before you say “yes” to a receipt, not just for the ones from TDG! If you absolutely need one, consider requesting for a digital one emailed to you instead. At TDG, you can also grab a picture of the cashier display screen which shows your itemised bill.