Is thermal paper consumption on the checkout by point-of-sale receipt printers the subsequent goal for Greentailers in there bid for carbon neutrality?
Thermal receipt printers in retail shops are each day consuming tons of of 1000’s of rolls of thermal paper. They accomplish that while performing their job of printing receipts that invariably are discarded inside an hour of leaving the shop. Retailers with a watch on the temper of environmentally-conscious shoppers are continually looking for methods to cut back their carbon footprint – and paper consumption on the level of sale might nicely be an attractive space to give attention to. Particularly on condition that any financial savings in paper consumption wouldn’t solely assist the surroundings but in addition help with value reductions for the shop.
On this article we’re quantifying the quantity of thermal paper {that a} typical 700 retailer retail chain would use in a day and a 12 months – and the impression that rationalizing paper utilization might probably have on an organizations carbon footprint.
I chosen 700 shops as a base as a result of available in the market I’m observing – Australia – there are two vital gamers within the grocery store area every with 700+ shops working.
In a typical grocery store in Australia a degree of sale checkout lane will eat on common 3.5 rolls of thermal paper per day. The load of a roll of thermal paper includes 333 grams of precise paper. A mean grocery store may have at the very least 10 checkout lanes.
Doing the essential math the argument for paper saving turns into compelling:
- 700 retail shops x 10 lanes per retailer = 7000 checkout lanes for that retail chain
- 7000 checkout lanes x 3.5 rolls of thermal paper per day = 24,500 rolls of paper/day.
- 24,500 rolls of paper x 333 grams/roll = 8,158,500 grams in complete, which equates to 8.1585 tonnes of paper per day.
This seems like plenty of paper – and sure it’s! It requires roughly 22 timber to make a single tonne of thermal paper. So in our 700 retailer situation above, the place the retail chain consumes on common greater than 8 tonnes of paper every day of operation this equates to:
8.1585 tonnes of paper per day x 22 timber per tonne = 179 timber per day
Most supermarkets are in enterprise for at the very least 360 days of a given 12 months and this each day tree consumption actually blows out if you extrapolate these figures, as a result of the variety of timber consumed yearly all of a sudden leaps to –
179 timber consumed per day x 360 days working = 64,440 timber per 12 months!
If a greentailing enterprise had been in a position to scale back their paper consumption by 50% they might be saving 32,000 timber yearly – 320,000 timber in a decade.
Multiply this quantity by what number of retail chains are on the market and we’re speaking actually thousands and thousands of mature timber which thus far are proving to be one of the best carbon sucking system obtainable on the planet.
Can greentailers make a distinction by lowering paper consumption?
Certain they’ll – a brand new breed of inexperienced pos printer know-how, or eco printers, is accessible that makes a 50% paper saving achievable. The query now’s do greentailers have the will to comply with by means of.