(-- The Beacon)
By Jennifer Rillamas
If I never have to see another receipt for the rest of my life, I will die a happy person. They are everywhere. On the ground, in the trash, smashed in backpacks, shoved in pockets and most disheartening, piling up behind cash registers. For a school that has entirely banned the sale of plastic water bottles, it's a little disappointing to see how poorly paper management is done here when it comes to receipts. The first time I toured UP I was amazed at how sustainable the campus was. With big measures like the construction of multiple halls built to LEED Gold Certification, in addition to the ban of plastic water bottles, I was convinced the whole school was entirely committed to being green. Unfortunately, my bubble of green perfection suddenly burst once I started purchasing food on campus. What put me over the edge was seeing what was being done with the receipts, especially in The Cove. Cashiers were just ripping the receipts out of the machine and then proceeding to throw them casually behind the machine. I wonder what the writers and reviewers of the Princeton Review's Guide to 311 Green Colleges would have to say about that. Bottom line is, the school needs to be looking for alternatives. In reality, it's quite pointless as to why a receipt needs to be printed every time food is purchased. If we truly are "starving college kids," I'm going to go ahead and say none of us are planning on returning our food later in the day, so why don't we save some paper and just don't print any. Paperless options exist and work really well. Major retailers such as Apple, Kmart and Nordstrom have started offering electronic versions of receipts that are e-mailed to customers. If major corporation chains can manage to email receipts to thousands of customers, UP could definitely manage a similar system for on campus purchases. Granted, going completely electronic would be a huge jump for the school. But small things can be done to reduce the amount of paper used on campus. Cashiers could simply ask us if we want a receipt before they print it, or we could have an online account where we can check our remaining point balance at the end of the day. Some students appreciate having a readily available means of checking their ever-diminishing point value. But judging by how many receipts I see on the ground walking back and forth to my dorm every day, I'd say many could care less. We were the first school on the West Coast to discontinue the sale of disposable plastic water bottles on campus. Let's make another name for ourselves and take even bigger measures to stop the printing of paper receipts. Jennifer Rillamas is a freshman psychology major. She can be contacted at rillamas15@up.edu.
