Christmas supermarket till receipts wrap around the world – every week!

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Over 26,000 miles of receipts issued as waste reaches 'epidemic' levels

British supermarkets issue over 26,000 miles of till receipts every week in the run up to Christmas – more than enough paper to go around the entire circumference of the world – and virtually all of it is wasted.

These are the findings of a leading expert in waste and recycling, which has calculated that around 270 tons of till receipts are printed out for customers, many of which are thrown straight into bins along with non-recyclable single-use carrier bags.

Most of those receipts, and everything else that is printed from the till roll, is also on a special kind of paper that does not really recycle well, if at all. It is a so-called thermal paper as the printers does not actually ink but heat to create the “imprint”. In addition to that the paper is laced with BPA, which is a known health risk.

Stores that print out additional offers along with the legally required receipt make the problem worse by producing paper that customers almost always ignore. And those are just the receipts, etc., that are issued over the run-up to Christmas.

Factor in to that the estimated 150 million supermarket and convenience store transactions every week, and a couple of feet soon turns into thousands of miles.

In extreme cases, a customer can sometimes leave a store with:

• Till receipt

• Separate bank card receipt

• Money saving offers

• "You saved… compared to our competitors" promotions

• Loyalty vouchers to collect

While the receipt itself is a (legal) requirement, it is the reams of promotional material to which we should object, leaving customers walking away with armfuls of ticker tape that they often bin, along with their carrier bags.

Those estimated 150 million weekly grocery transactions equate to:

• 26,000 miles of paper, more than enough to reach around the world's 24,000 circumference

• 270 tons of paper, most of which is discarded rather than recycled because, as indicated already above, some of the paper is mostly non-recyclable

• A year's worth of till receipts would reach from the moon and back – twice

The frightening thing is that the data is only confined this to grocery stores in the United Kingdom. Add to that other business sectors like DIY warehouses and petrol stations, add in the rest of the world – that weekly till roll is going to wrap the world up like a gift bow, and that's not a good thing.

© 2017

Study shows that experiences, not things, will make you happier

Many people know that experiences will make them happier, and yet they continue to spend money on material objects because of their perceived greater value.

There is an ongoing debate between my husband and me about how we’d like to spend any extra money that comes in. He likes to acquire, slowly but surely, high quality items that will last for many years, such as cookware, chef’s knives, and winter coats.

While I can’t argue with his ongoing quest for quality, I would prefer to spend money on travel, to skip buying that gorgeous pot by Le Creuset and put that money toward a destination, an experience, and a lasting memory. We do a good job of striking a balance between our two preferences, but now I’ve come across some interesting research that I’ll have to show him as a way of boosting my side of the argument!

It has been shown by a recent study from San Francisco State University that greater happiness comes from seeking experiences, rather than material objects. Although this may seem like common sense to many readers, reality paints another picture – one in which people most often spend their money on material items because they mistakenly believe that they have greater value.

Read more here.

Amazon vs. the high street

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

When buying your presents for Christmas this year consider carefully and think ethics before you think price. I know that in an age of austerity this is not always easy but thinking we must that way nevertheless.

While Amazon may be cheaper than high street stores and even other mail order companies it comes at a price for the workers and the environment.

In addition to that Amazon is playing the tax avoidance game big time and pays little to no taxes in the UK or the US because they are, basically, with their head offices, based in what can only be described as “tax havens”. Furthermore they pay the lowest wages that they can possibly get away with and hate trade unions and the way they deal with their workers is exploitation bordering on slavery that is a risk to the health of those workers. They also are wreckers of bricks-and-mortar bookshops, especially of the small, independent ones but even the large chains are far from immune to their influence.

Yep, "all the bad stuff at once" but you can make a change here, every single one of us, and that is by refusing to make use of Amazon.

Personally, for reasons of ethics, I refuse to buy from Amazon and also will not accept, even when free, as it would be in that case, to take an Amazon published e-book for review. And for the same reason I refuse to publish in the Kindle format and only offer PDF.

It is for the same reasons of ethics, because of workers' rights and treatment and of exploitation of labor and environment, that I will not buy at Walmart or its subsidiaries, such as ASDA in the UK. The old ASDA once was a favorite place to shop for me when they were ASDA, as in Associated Dairies, but that is long past.

As shoppers we can make a difference to the way companies and stores do business and how they operate. Voting with our wallets and our feet is the best message that we can send to them.

So, let's send them the proper message, a message that will hurt them in their profits for it is the only one that they will ever understand. Let's buy our books and other things from local stores and local makers and if it comes to e-books let's insist that they are in PDF and not in Kindle or other format designed to work with but one device type often and being tied to one store.

Help bring life back to the high street – or main street as our American cousins call it – by shopping there as much as possible. And while not all goods may be local, the shops are and best choice is to give our custom to the independents wherever possible.

We can all bring about the change that we wish by even small steps and one of those small steps is to support the High Street and its shops wherever and whenever possible, and give our custom especially to the small and independent stores and the co-ops.

© 2013