Here's My Great Green Idea!

While cleaning out my purse one day, I was shocked at how much of the "stuff" was trash in the form of retail receipts. I decided to sort the receipts into piles, not wanting to discard something I might need.

I wondered, "What constitutes a receipt I will NEED?" All I could think of was that it would be for something that I might want to return or that it might be need for taxes. After all, I already use my check register and credit card statement to look up any purchases I have questions about.

As I sorted, they all went into one pile: TRASH. I sincerely doubted that I would ever return any of the restaurant or fast food I had eaten and nothing I bought was tax deductible. I thought about the number of trees we cut down a year in order to make all these tiny slips of paper that go almost immediately into the trash. Where does all that trash go? Recycling? Landfills? The ocean?

I decided that I would make a point of refusing receipts and telling the merchants why I was returning the receipt to them. "My suggestion is that you ask the shopper if they would like a receipt", I smile while I say it. "There is no way we can do it differently", is the usual reply. I point out that gas stations do it all the time; there must be a way.

It always surprises me that the cashier almost always tries to give me the receipt again! I ask them to recycle it for me and ask if I can give my suggestion to their manager. Some managers are more receptive than others. The smaller places I shop know me now and DO ask if I would like a receipt.

It's a small start, but if everyone did it, maybe it would become standard practice.