The Ministry for the Environment said it did not have a position on thermal paper receipts and was not considering any regulatory changes about receipt printing.<\/p>\n
However, it noted many businesses already voluntarily offered customers the option of declining a printed receipt or choosing a digital one, describing those initiatives as \u201ca good example\u201d of retailers reducing their environmental impact.<\/p>\n
For Breustedt, however, voluntary action does not go far enough.<\/p>\n
He wants businesses to stop automatically printing thermal receipts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go to a cafe, they ask you, \u2018do you need the receipt?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t, they take the receipt out of the Eftpos machine and throw it somewhere,\u201d Breustedt said.<\/p>\n
His discussion paper, supported by local church environmental groups, cited overseas studies suggesting thermal receipts contained chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) or bisphenol S (BPS) and that repeated exposure could pose health risks.<\/p>\n
He claimed better protection was also needed for workers who handled receipts regularly.<\/p>\n
Research cited in his paper suggested that while short exposure was unlikely to harm most people, it could be more concerning for pregnant women, children and those with thyroid issues.<\/p>\n
Originally from Germany, Breustedt spent much of his career working on environmental projects and said he believed there was still much to be done in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople believe when they are recycling plastic, it solves the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to reduce the amount of plastic that we are using.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breustedt said the aim was not to ban all receipts or all plastic overnight, but to push for practical changes and clearer information for the public.<\/p>\n
He said he wanted people to be aware that recycling soft plastic into outdoor products could still lead to microplastic pollution in future.<\/p>\n
Breustedt said he hoped the paper would start a wider conversation and ultimately lead to practical policy changes.<\/p>\n
The Ministry for the Environment said reducing plastic pollution was a key focus through wider waste and resource efficiency programmes, including product stewardship schemes and previous bans on a range of hard-to-recycle and single-use plastic items.<\/p>\n
\u201cA third tranche of a work covering additional PVC and polystyrene food packaging phase-outs was to be in place by 2025, but this was put on hold pending further work and consultation with industry,\u201d the ministry said. <\/p>\n
\u201cA Cabinet decision is expected in the coming months and, if approved, new regulations would likely take effect in 2030, aligning with similar moves anticipated in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hastings District Council\u2019s waste planning manager Angela Atkins said thermal receipts were not accepted in kerbside recycling and that they should be placed in the rubbish bin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere possible, residents can choose not to receive a printed receipt or request an electronic receipt instead,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The council encouraged businesses to reduce unnecessary waste where practical, including by using digital tools instead of printed materials where suitable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognise that the ability to offer electronic receipts may depend on the capabilities of individual point-of-sale systems,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n
She said the council worked with businesses, households, schools and community groups to reduce waste through education, waste minimisation initiatives and support for more sustainable practices. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ministry for the Environment said it did not have a position on thermal paper receipts and was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[432,95,1561,115,2082,1976,5158,111,43,139,69,90,45644,11325,4987,156190,66958],"class_list":["post-532775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-action","tag-and","tag-bay","tag-calls","tag-for","tag-hawkes","tag-man","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-paper","tag-plastic","tag-pollution","tag-receipts","tag-thermal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}