The Receipt Bank Blog

We’ve recently found out that today is AIIM's (Association for Information and Image Management) World Paper Free Day 2012.

Their research looks into how moving away from paper and towards digital alternatives can save time whilst helping the environment - a trend that Receipt Bank is very proud to be a part of!

Working with businesses around the world, we have seen that the average micro business is given approximately 500 receipts and invoices every year. What’s more, depending on your definition, the average small business is given an average of 3,000 in the same time period.

With this information intact we felt we had to head for the calculator and an envelope.

- 4.5 million UK micro businesses are given 2,250,000,000 receipts and invoices a year*

- 175,000 UK small businesses are given 525,000,000 receipts and invoices a year

So to make that relatable and easy to see (it’s difficult to picture that many receipts on a table we know!) let’s represent those figures in trees. Apparently, it takes one tree to make 50,000 receipts, so:

- 45,000 trees are felled each year to produce the receipts and invoices for the UK’s micro businesses

- 10,500 trees are felled each year to produce the receipts and invoices for the UK’s small businesses

Due to the sheer amount of trees being used in this manner Receipt Bank is committed to recycling every item received.

Also, as 70% less energy is needed to recycle paper in comparison to making new paper, each item we receive further contributes to lessening the impact receipts and invoices have on the environment.

If you’d like to see more facts about our relationship with the environment, and the impact paper is having on the world please follow our Twitter feed throughout the week via @ReceiptBank

We hope to see you there!

* We apologise for such a UK centric post!