Cash receipts, credit card slips, purchase vouchers… On 1 January, an implementing decree for the anti-waste law provides for “the prohibition of the systematic printing of tickets in stores”.
33 billion of these pieces of paper are published each year in France.
This is not without the consumption of resources or the production of waste, which is non-recyclable moreover.
But if in many cases, they are thrown away just printed, in others, the receipts are very useful.
What alternatives to offer?
The e-mail, or even better the QR code?
It accompanies the least of our purchases.
Whether it's an item of clothing, a book or a new fridge, the week's groceries or the sandwich bought on the go at lunchtime... We're obviously talking about the receipt, that piece of paper that often stretches length, especially when accompanied by credit card slips, coupon tickets and current promotions... In many cases, they are rolled up as soon as they are printed to be thrown in the trash or at the bottom of the pocket.
End all that on January 1, 2023?
Not quite.
A measure of the anti-waste law for a circular economy (Agec) provides on this date for the prohibition of the systematic paper printing of tickets in stores.
Clearly: consumers will be informed, by way of display at the cash desk, that if they wish to obtain a ticket, they must expressly request it.
The trader will then not be able to refuse the printing.
The environment to the detriment of consumer rights?
The stated goal is to reduce this flood of papers, estimated at 33 billion each year by the government.
Not great for the environment.
The production of these tickets consumes resources (paper, water, etc.), "and they are too thin and too light to be recycled", adds Léna Crolot, co-founder of Billiv, a start-up specializing in the dematerialization of the receipt. .
The upcoming measure does not please consumer associations, who fear a forced dematerialization, to the detriment of consumer rights.
Because if they are sometimes neglected, they still serve as proof of purchase, essential to make a guarantee work, to obtain a refund or an exchange.
"They are also in many cases very useful to guard against an error in the cash registers, to make expense reports or accounts," adds Léna Crolot.
Whence the imperative to propose digital alternatives?
53% of French people say they are ready to adopt the dematerialized version, observed last March a study by the Opinéa institute for Twilio, a customer engagement platform.
In this regard, e-mail would be the most popular solution.
By more than 50% of French people, again according to this same survey.
The e-mail, the false good idea?
“E-mail should be the preferred channel for the majority of merchants, at least initially,” anticipates Léna Crolot.
Moreover, some brands already offer this solution.
But it is not without problems.
“It does not guarantee, in particular, the protection of personal data, and it is clear that many are reluctant to give their e-mail addresses, for fear of receiving unwanted advertisements.
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Above all, are we certain that the receipt by e-mail is more ecological?
Frédéric Bordage, creator of Green IT, a group of digital experts who have been promoting sustainable computing since 2004, invites us to get out of the myth of dematerialization.
“We just change the medium, he insists.
From paper, we move on to e-mails, the sending of which requires terminals (computer, smartphone, etc.), routers, servers to store this data.
Digital also has its environmental impacts.
Not only greenhouse gas emissions, but it is also and above all the consumption of abiotic resources, in particular the metals used to build all this digital infrastructure.
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The "QR code" to go further?
Therefore, e-mail could be a worse remedy than paper “or with at least equivalent impacts”, believes Frédéric Bordage.
Billiv, as well as Noticia, another start-up to have launched into digital receipts, offer another path.
Still in digital, but this time through the QR code.
By flashing it, an Internet page opens on our smartphone, on which the receipt appears.
In the same way that we sometimes flash the menu of a restaurant.
No need to register or download an app.
“The ticket can be found every time you go to this page,” explains Neil Azouz, from Noticia.
Main ecological advantage of this format: the weight of the file.
"Rather than being sent by e-mail, in PDF format, we publish it in a JSON format, which is drastically lighter, and therefore less cumbersome to store", continues Neil Azouz.
“Seventy times,” says Léna Crolot, whose company also uses JSON and who compared the two.
Noticia is working on another black point of the digital ticket's environmental impact: its storage time, which can become infinite if you don't think about deleting it.
“If it is not mentioned as important by the consumer, the till receipt will automatically disappear after one year”, indicates Neil Azouz.
For its part, Billiv asked itself the question of the place of storage of this data, the choice of the technology of the server being able to unscrew the carbon footprint.
"We use the greenest possible servers, in particular because they do not require cooling systems, which makes them much less energy-intensive", indicates Léna Corlot.
Nothing will change on January 1?
Unlike e-mail, the solution offered by the two start-ups is paid for by the merchant.
In both cases,
the basic package is around 10 euros per month, a price which then increases according to the number of equipped checkouts or the number of tickets issued.
To convince businesses to get started, Billiv like Noticia are adding other “bricks” to the edition of these digital tickets.
"This Billiv page that opens on your smartphone allows you to leave a review on the business, or to find out how many loyalty points we have in this brand and how many we need to take advantage of the discount or the gift..., list Lena Corlot.
In short, for the trade, it is the possibility of improving its referencing and its customer relationship.
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Both Billiv and Noticia have already convinced their first customers.
At the beginning of October, the first said to have installed its solution in 250 stores and will announce in mid-December a first large account customer, “with more than 700 checkouts to be equipped”, specifies Léna Corlot.
However, this remains a drop in the bucket compared to the number of businesses concerned by this measure of the Agec law.
In other words, everyone, from the supermarket to the small trade, from the restaurant to the bookstore.
"Only 27% of companies are ready to adopt the dematerialized receipt", noted the Opinéa institute last March.
He should still miss a large majority on January 1.
“This law remains very little known, in particular because the government has communicated little about it, continues Laure Brunet, general delegate of the Confederation of French traders.
Above all,
the implementing decree has not yet been published, we do not know the contours of the measure.
There is still a lot of vagueness, especially when it comes to data protection.
»
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The “QR code” better than e-mail… but how much?
A priori therefore, the solution of the receipt by QR code would make it possible to be more ecological than by e-mail.
But not easy, in reality, to make precise comparisons.
Neil Azouz advances a carbon footprint of 19 g of CO2 for a receipt by e-mail, against 0.3 g of CO2 per year for a Noticia receipt.
“We considered that this fingerprint was the same as spam – that is to say an e-mail containing only text and without attachment –, already filled in in other studies”, specifies t- he.
Frédéric Bordage ticks on these figures.
“The first is taken from a study by Ademe in 2011, but took as a reference an e-mail sent with an attachment of 1 MB, he recalls.
It is much heavier than a receipt sent by e-mail.
As for the carbon footprint of a Noticia ticket,
“The estimate seems very low to me and is not taken from a complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which in particular does not only take greenhouse gas emissions into account.
Therefore, the founder of Green It recalls that the best alternative to paper remains "the ticket that we do not issue at all".
“Only then can we talk about dematerialization,” he points out.
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