Will new legislation provide Retailers the opportunity to help customers understand more about the receipt in their pocket?
Designed for use with thermal printers, thermal till rolls are used to produce millions of customer receipts every year. Used primarily in shops, from busy retailers to restaurants – thermal till rolls provide a smooth, reliable checkout experience. But this reliability comes at its own cost – and it’s to the environment.
11.21 billion till receipts end up in landfill each year in the UK as thermal paper is not recyclable. Over 95% of UK shoppers are unaware that their receipts can’t go in the household recycling bin and dispose of them along with other paper products after use. With new legislation looming on how Retailers will be expected to support their customers with waste disposal, what’s in store for your receipt?
What are thermal till rolls?
As sustainability becomes a top priority for businesses and consumers alike, the recyclability of everyday items is becoming increasingly important and under more scrutiny than ever before. One item that often gets overlooked is the humble till receipt.
Most modern cash register receipts are made using thermal paper, a type of paper that develops an image when exposed to heat rather than requiring ink. While this technology offers advantages for businesses such as cutting costs on ink cartridges, it also makes these receipts unrecyclable.
Why can’t thermal till roll receipts be put in the recycling bin?
It’s the thermal coating that is the issue. Thermal paper gets its special properties from a thin layer of heat-sensitive coating. This coating contains chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) or bisphenol S (BPS) that react with the heat of the printer to create the text on the receipt. Unfortunately, those same chemicals that enable the thermal printing process actually contaminates the paper, making it unusable in most standard recycling streams. The chemicals can even interfere with the recycling equipment itself.
No ink? Surely that’s got to be better for the environment? The fact that thermal rolls don’t use traditional ink might make you think thermal till receipts are more recyclable. But the reality is that the opposite is true and is another reason why they can’t be recycled.
Recycling facilities rely on the ink in paper products to help differentiate and separate materials more efficiently. Without this visual clue, thermal receipts become nearly impossible to sort properly during the recycling process. This means, those customers diligently disposing of their receipts along with other paper products actually unwittingly render it all unrecyclable.
New legislation for handling thermal till roll waste
From March 31 2025, retailers will be required to provide bins instore for customers to separate their waste. New laws will require separation of dry recycling and food waste from general waste. This is another further step towards eradicating needless waste and sits alongside the existing Packaging Waste Regulations and the new EPR legislation, encouraging greater accountability and better behaviours when it comes to the waste we all produce.
And it’s the Retail brands that are now faced with changing processes to support greater waste reduction through this new system of separation, collection and recycling wherever possible for themselves and their customers.
Retailers, food producers, and other high-waste sectors must now work with licensed waste collectors to manage disposal effectively and ensure compliance.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC hopes this will deliver a “meaningful shift in recycling rates in the UK” 2
Separating waste is key because it makes it easier to recycle everything and therefore reduces what needs to go to landfill.
But back to the thermal till rolls, it does raise the issue again of that contamination. When you remember that 95% of the public are unaware of the fact receipts are not recyclable – you can see the challenge can’t you? Till receipts disposed of alongside other dry recycling, potentially making everything else unrecyclable.
Educating customers on their thermal till receipts
Helping customers in store with their recycling is a great way to not only encourage better behaviours but also help customers understand more about the waste they are disposing of. Packaging Digest3 recently published the results of a study that saw how strategically placed instore signage encouraged increased recycling rates. Customers engaged with helpful information on shelf strips, paying attention to the special recycling drop off bins provided.
These educational hints and tips, as well as providing the receptacles to take their waste saw increased engagement by shoppers, potentially influencing more positive behaviours within the retail environment itself. Adopting this approach for segregating thermal till receipts would indeed be possible and hopefully overcome the challenge of contamination.
Making your thermal till rolls greener
The good news is that there is a way to make your thermal till roll as eco-friendly as possible. Everoll is a thermal till roll widely used in the UK and Europe in most leading supermarkets and high street retailers.
Everoll thermal till rolls use fewer resources in the manufacturing process and the paper pulp is sourced from FSC managed forests. Everoll provides a whole basket of benefits such as having twice the length of paper on the roll, compared to a standard till roll, which helps with busy queues due to less roll changes.
You’ll also see a cost saving between 5-10% as you’ll only need to order half as many as standard till rolls.
What else can retailers do to champion greener receipts?
- Opt for paper without the thermal coating, even if it requires an ink ribbon as these can be recycled into specialist waste streams
- Switch to digital receipts that customers can access on their phones
- Explore receipt options made from recycled or tree-free materials
Taking steps to make your receipts more eco-friendly with waste segregation is an easy way to improve your sustainability efforts and reduce your environmental impact.
After all, even small changes can add up to make a big difference.
To find out more about Everoll or if you need support with instore signage and waste receptacles, just get in touch with us here at [email protected]
1 https://www.businesswaste.co.uk/news/ban-to-stop-11-2-billion-harmful-till-receipts-heading-to-landfill/
2 https://brc.org.uk/news/csr/government-to-introduce-simpler-recycling-for-households-and-businesses-in-england/
3 https://www.packagingdigest.com/sustainability/want-consumers-to-recycle-in-store-show-them-how-