Speech by YB Phee Boon Poh, Penang State EXCO for Environment and Welfare cum Vice-Chairman of Penang Green Council on 30th May 2023 at Bilik Nilam, KOMTAR

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for making time to attend the official launching of Penang No Paper Receipt Day Campaign today. I am
delighted to kick start this initiative by Penang Green Council and AI Softbox to promote paperless receipt and digitalisation in align with Penang 2030’s vision in building Penang into a Green & Smart State that inspires the nation.

Paper receipts are small items that we would easily neglect after receiving it. If you are not aware, it can be considered as single use too! A single paper receipt emits around 2.5g of carbon during its lifetime – from production, to transport, and most of the time, it will be thrown into the bins and sent to landfill as general waste.

One of our concerns is that paper receipt can be harmful to our health and environment as most paper receipts are printed on thermal paper which is coated with BPA – a chemical toxic to humans and the environment. These BPA paper receipts are considered as general waste because they are non-recyclable due to the material content that will contaminate the paper recycling system.

According to Forbes.com, in the United States alone, paper receipt production uses an estimated 12.4 million trees,13.2 billion gallons of water, and emits 4 billion pounds of CO2 each year. Therefore, we highly recommend customers to request for digital receipt and encourage merchants to go digital whenever they can to save paper and also save cost.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today, we are here for one same goal: to eliminate paper receipts as well as to reduce waste in Penang. There are solutions for this, and we hope that more merchants will be supporting this initiative for a greener community. Penang No Paper Receipt Day Campaign is a good education opportunity not only to create awareness among the public but also a chance for them to start a new green habit.

This campaign plays an important role to create an impact as we hope to inspire more business to be a part of the zero-waste payment community. We were so used to using cash and credit card for payment, or even walk in the banks for services. But now that we have e-wallet, online payment and “duit now” services, why not we make e-receipts another new norm?

As announced by the LHDN in March this year, tax payers will no longer be required to keep hard copies of their invoices, vouchers and receipts for seven years when the LHDN introduces the “e-invoicing” initiative early next year. This is another great initiative and reason why we support paperless receipt in Penang.

We believe that there are businesses and shops in Penang that are already taking lead in reducing paper usage in their payment mechanism. Through this campaign, we aim to advocate and encourage more people to make a change for our environment by taking baby steps like saying no to paper receipt. This requires the cooperation from both consumers and businesses to make it happen. As what we always say: No demand means no supply. By educating our customers, we can definitely achieve our goals in a more efficient way.

Last but not least, I would like to congratulate the 200 merchants and shops that are taking part in this campaign from 1 st June to 31 st August. Well done to Penang Green Council, AI Softbox, Digital Penang, and JCIUP for the joint effort in this campaign. It is important that we start it small and not just empty talk. We’ve achieved in the No Plastic Bag Campaign, and I believe we can do it again. Thank you everyone.