I made a few purchases today and had my double receipt from each one stapled together, sometimes faster than I could say "no staple please". I wish they would ask first, or use the punching tool that attaches them together without staples. It seems like such a waste of metal.

For many a paper receipt is need. The cost of going to paperless too costly.
Many companies currently are providing receipts that print in a smaller font.
So instead of a 12 inch receipt it is cut down to 3 inches.

incorparate the smart phones we all have into this and before you know it we won't be waste so much paper and be a better society for it.

Great idea indeed. We thought so as well and founded www.yreceipts.com. Our customers (retailers) have the option to provide a receipt via email instead of printing it on paper. It's great. Good luck with your competition.

We can encourage paperless communications between businesses attempting to reach out to the community by taking advantage of things like mobile coupons. This is a great way to reward forward-thinking practices and at the same time find out about new deals that can be shared with friends. Try downloading this app: Clip Mobile. It’s a neat way to access many Green Zebra partners who also share our values.

Awesome idea. It's small things like this that are such powerful changers. Think of the millions of receipts that must get printed for such trivial things like coffee or a few groceries. I know of some retailers who offer email receipts already. While they are big chains, I'm sure it cant be too hard to implement if properly endorsed. I'm sure if visa or mastercard or interac set this up on their end, that would automatically cut receipts in half. From a standpoint of warranties that'd be great to have too.

Yes the impact of electricity and computer equipment does have to be considered, but on the surface this seems like a great idea.

This idea requires more analysis ... if retailers must keep an electronic data base in place of a one time, user-held receipt, the idea is directly linked to consumption of power to maintain digital memory and to the production and waste disposal of computer equipment. If a retailer kept a paper ledger, eventually the issue becomes space and storage, which in itself has an environmental impact because of land use, building construction, and building maintenance (utilities, etc.). A single piece of post-consumer waste paper from a renewal, managed forest kept in the hands of the consumer may well be the best option. Receipts aren't generated because retailers want to consume paper product, they're generated because of the record keeping requirements attached to consumption taxes (HST, PST, GST). When a warranty is involved, the receipt serves an additional purpose, it is the representative documentation of a consumer-goods contract between purchaser and seller, and ought to be in the hands of the purchaser, since the rights to consumer protection flow to the purchaser, the obligations to the retailer, it would be tragic if a retailers data base failed and with that failure the consumer's warranty documentation was lost. As to the receipt that must be generated in relation to trivial purchases, such as a cup of coffee, buy less! Consuming less of any single use good is the way to decrease the environmental impact of consumption.

This is a great idea!
I learned recently that the heat-sensitive paper that many receipts are now printed on contains bisphenol a (BPA), and that it gets into the stream of paper as it is recycled. This is a source of BPA exposure for people.

Never mind that I don't really need that receipt for my three dollar coffee. I can tell that I spent too much money without one.

Great idea. I am constantly loosing receipts for warranties. This will be so helpful!

Excellent idea and much more organized for me!

I recently tried the service for paperless receipts at theperkcard.com. It seems really cool...hopefully retailers get on board with this quick as it seems like such a waste to get so many paper receipts that just end up just being tossed in the trash anyways.

Great idea. Just like a card I signed up for recently at www.theperkcard.com. I see your post name is "theperkcard", are you them? If so, I love the website. I've scanned a few receipts and uploaded them and the last pair of running shoes I bought, I was able to get my receipt digitally.

What a great way to save paper!

Nice! For those without PDAs, there could be a small fee for the printing of a receipt.

I think this is a great idea! I have a PERK card, and love it! Why not get a digital receipt and save the environment while I'm shopping?! Go PERK! Vancouver retailers - get on board =)

Whatr an outstanding idea...not to mention just how organized I will be.

No more "shoe boxes" of receipts....