Be green at the cash machine: don't ask for a receipt!
I've always suspected that those oh-so dilligent people who hold up the queue by asking for receipts at cash machines were wasting everyone's time, but it's since come to light that they are wasting paper, too.
A quite staggering amount of paper, in fact. A recent survey revealed that if you taped together all of the ATM slips generated in the United States alone, they would be more than 2 billion feet long: that's enough to circle the equator 15 times...
So next time you're at the hole in the wall to withdraw some cash, ask yourself if you really need that receipt. Are you honestly going to file it away carefully or ever even look at it again? The truth is, most people simply jettison the receipts as soon as they've checked their balance; a process that could just as easily be done on screen or using online banking. And while you're at it, why not ask your bank to stop sending you paper statements as well? It's a huge waste of resources and pointelss when you can view all your transactions any time of day or night at a computer.
We were talking about just this the other day, thing is, I use them to balance my accounts. But, I don't need it to be printed. I guess I could start taking photos of cashpoints with my mobile phone camera, but I wonder how long it would be before the police or bank staff came to see me...
Now, if we could persuade the bank to email me my receipt I'd be much, much happier...
Posted by: Jane | May 19, 2008 11:14 PM