Wed – 3/20: Those receipts you stuff into your pocket are toxic waste. Who knew? One call, one petition.

Jimmy Kimmel displays an employee’s receipt from CVS for two items. Watch video here.

Action #1 – Ask your state legislator to vote “YES” on AB-161 “Skip the Slip!”

We’ve survived the prohibition of single-use bags, and having to ask for a straw… except maybe Devin Nunes. (Be sure to follow his continuing adventures on @devincow) We are now aware of our plastic waste crisis, more urgent now that China is refusing our “recyclable” plastic. But there’s still a long way to go in reducing our solid waste.

AB-161 addresses those pesky thermal paper “proof-of-purchase” receipts, which many of us just consider a nuisance. Why bother? Well, their production consumes lots of resources, while generating tons of CO2 waste. Plus, 93% of paper receipts are coated with Bisphenol-A (BPA) or Bisphenol-S (BPS) chemicals, which is absorbed the skin. So, toxic AND unrecyclable because of it. Connecticut already banned receipt paper containing BPA in 2011 and the European Union will start in 2020. Come on, CA, we can do better!

Mimimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Assemblymember [____] to vote YES on AB-161.

Yes, you can still get a paper receipt if you want one.

Contact: State Assemblymember Monique Limón: (CA-37): SAC (916) 319-2037, SB (805) 564-1649, VTA (805) 641-3700 email
Not your people?:findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.

The bill is currently in the Natural Resources Committee, of which Assemblymember Monique Limón is a member. They are voting MONDAY. Even if your person isn’t on this committee, you can call to tell them this is an issue we’d like them to support.

Action #2 – Sign a petition to CVS regarding their monster-long receipts.

Green America’s Skip the Slip campaign is calling on CVS to replace its current thermal paper with a recyclable, phenol-free option and expand its digital program to be accessible for all customers, not just those who’ve signed up for their membership program. This way transactions can serve all customer needs while reducing environmental impacts and ending employee and customer exposure to potentially harmful toxins. (We need a petition that asks for some of the coupons on their LOOOOONG receipts to actually reflect stuff that we buy, but that’s a different issue.)

Sign the “Skip the Slip” petition here.