Meanwhile in Germany: https://paymentandbanking.com/en/tag/bonpflicht-en/
Since January 1, 2020, the receipt requirement has been in force in Germany, and retailers and restaurateurs must issue a receipt for every transaction.
Well, it's not mandatory to print a receipt in Germany. Only the purchase itself needs to be recorded and the receipt can be issued in a digital form as well. It's up to the retailers how they want to implement this.
Let's take the two local bakeries in my neighborhood as an example. One still issues paper receipts and complains since three years about this law with witty share pics that he has to raise prices because of all the paper he needs to buy and that the government does not trust family businesses. And the other one simply provides a QR code on the cash registry's screen which I can scan within 60 seconds to download the receipt (if I want to) or he prints one if asked to do so.
In fact, I do not see big differences to the situation in France.
That works to combat tax fraud though. Cash payment is incredibly popular in Germany, partly because many stores or restaurants outright refuse card payments to avoid paying taxes.
Wait… are you saying some Germans doesn’t respect the law? Is it possible for a German?
Dont you worry, we are sure to blame the foreigners for it
How can the foreigners break the law? They are already busy stealing our jobs while also being too lazy to actually work! /s
Avoiding taxes can be a very well paying job
That works to combat tax fraud though
If there only was a way to do something like this electronically...
There's no obligation to provide a paper "Bon," stores can just offer digital receipts by default.
The bakeries I go to usually do this (even though bakeries where crying the loudest back then). Other stores don't for some reason.
If there only was a way to do something like this electronically…
There is, the receipts don't have to be paper-based, they can be an email - REWE does that for example, if you have a loyalty card.
What they didn't manage to do is find a way to do it electronically without some sort of profile/registration.
Meanwhile, French elites take their private jets to celebrate the success by vacationing (totally not off-setting the carbon savings)
And the right/alt right tries to defend it saying it creates jobs
Sometimes I really question the real motives of the environemtalists pushing for such petty changes. just make biodegradable. especialy for things like groceries where there isn't a big expectation for returns.
While I agree that we should focus heavily on the big stuff I really don't understand why people get so upset about this. Everything little thing helps and if people just said "yes of course we should stop that" and moved on to the nex thing, we could get so much further. It's just such a low hanging fruit to ban stupid receipts that are generally not wanted.
Other low hanging fruit examples: single use plastic bags, single use plastic plates and cups, unnesseary packaging for products, non biodegradable packaging, unnesseary lights in stores that are closed, the smallest coin size like the 1-50 cent etc etc etc. Literally everything helps so don't get upset.
If you can't handle the small changes how the hell do you handle the bigger changes that are to come.
More important low hanging fruit:
Why are people always so small minded about this? Have you not considered how immensely more polluting a car or a house is than a plastic bag? Have you not considered the people affected: a few of the richest vs millions of average people?
Think big. Think rich. Those are the changes we need.
Petty changes still matters in the big picture. Even if they were made biodegradable, there would still be emissions involved in the production of them. Also this is definitely the future anyway, since payment methods are switching to digital either way.
Reading the article, it's just aimed at pointless receipts. Think paying cash for a loaf of bread and a pint of milk. You don't need paper for that. Update POS software to ask before printing.
Also, it's mostly thermal paper these days. I don't even think you can make that biodegradable and if you can there's plenty of chemicals in there you probably don't want releasing into nature. At this point it's easier to just get rid of them than to replace them with dot matrix printers again.
Email is the wrong solution as well. Nobody wants to fuck about at the till going "danny dot f underscore 32 at yahoo dot mail dot org". No operator wants to have to type that in. Half the time they'd type it wrong. I don't want them to even have my email address, because I know they'll spam the fuck out of it. I'd rather they just send a bunch of sale metadata to my credit card provider or something, so the proof of sale could be on there.
I just don't take a receipt unless it's for something that might need to go back. Equally pointless are the shops that ask if you need a receipt, but they've already printed it anyway so they just chuck it in a bin behind them.
Over here there are some supermarkets that offer digital receipts via qr code. It's really not that hard tbh. Although I usually tap on "digital receipt" and then just don't scan it so they don't print one.
Not sure if there's a scheme in place here in Scotland or UK, but I always get asked if I want a receipt or not for several years now. Receipts and plastic bags are only by request. The main exceptions seem to be restaurants and public transport.
However, my local supermarket has installed receipt scanning barriers at the self checkout - so those used to have optional receipts, but no longer. I guess profits before environment.
Often in the US you'll be asked if you want a receipt, but saying no will frequently have the receipt printed anyway but they just throw it away. It's pretty stupid.
In France in my local supermarket, since several days, we can print only a small receipt just for the scanning barriers if we want. This is still some waste though.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand receipts are probably nothing in the scale of pollution in general. On the other hand the paper receipts are printed on is non-recyclable whatsoever (due to the wax layer), so it can only end up in a landfill or burned. However forcing service providers and sellers to issue receipts ensures they pay tax on the goods and services sold. Perhaps secret shopper type of control by the tax bureau would make them do that anyway. Don't know what to think
In Sweden there are digital mailboxes that are considered just as bound to you as physical mail boxes (normal email is considered too flimsy for official mail etc).
If you have such a mailbox a lot of stores will send the receipt digitally instead of printing it at the POS. Although it only works if they know who you are (i.e you basically have to have a membership with the store).
Kivra and such are privately owned, and it seems foolish to trust them with all your data. One should use Min Myndighetspost as a digital mailbox for government-mails, and encourage places to have alternative options (Hemköp and Willys lets you see your receipts on their own websites for example)
The paper commonly used for receipts is thermal paper, which doesn't usually have any wax in it. But it's still not recyclable due to the other chemicals in it.
True. Some shops (only Lidl where I live so far) switched to blue receipts, which apparently can be recycled with paper
Dew to total control in Russia we have our receipets on e-mail 🤷♂️ 🙈
It's pretty simple, modify the electronic payments circuits to have them transmit virtual receipts, and continue using paper for receipts of cash payments
Well, here in Italy most places don't give you a receipt at all. For the wrong reasons (tax evasion) but at least we don't waste paper, right? Right?
Nukular iS fReNChs contribution to stop climate change LOL
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